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Ingram : St Michael's Church Exterior By P F Ryder

Ingram parish church consists of an aisled nave of four bays with a west tower, a south porch, and an aisleless chancel.

The Tower is built of regularly coursed squared stone. In the tall lower stage, which has a chamfered plinth, the masonry is very much of 12th century character, many of the blocks being almost square; there are simple round-headed windows, quite narrow, on west and south. There are short straight joints in the lower courses close to the east ends of north and south walls.

Above a chamfered set-back the top stage is of more elongate blocks, rather more yellow in colour; the chamber below the belfry has chamfered square-headed windows on west and south and the belfry itself a pair of short lancet lights in each wall; below the eastern belfry openings is the roof tabling of a nave roof of similar pitch to but slightly higher than the present one. There is a hollow-chamfered oversailing course at the base of the parapet, which has a stone spout in the centre of each side, and a simple flat-topped coping.

Some accounts refer to the tower as having been rebuilt c1900. The NCH account refers to it being 'underpinned with new concrete foundations and then, commencing at the bottom, taken down in small sections and rebuilt piecemeal in cement mortar. All the facing stones were numbered and replaced as nearly as possible in their original positions.

The remainder of the exterior of the church is virtually all of the 1870s; the walls are of coursed squared stone, the courses varying in height. The windows are all lancets have single or double-chamfered surrounds; the dressings of most have cut faces of ashlar quality, and others only roughly tooled; there is a chamfered plinth all round.

There is no external division of break in roof-line between nave and aisles; the eastern bay of the north aisle, now the organ chamber, is wider than the remainder. The gables of nave, chancel and porch are all coped, with finial crosses. The south porch, projecting from the western bay of the south aisle, has a chamfered two-centred arch; to the east of it are two pairs of lancets (with a buttress between) and then a triple lancet marking the broader eastern bay, which has a single lancet on the east; all these have double-chamfered surrounds.

The only pre-19th century masonry visible on the exterior of the body of the church is a section of irregular fabric on the west side of the projecting eastern bay. The three western bays of the north aisle have single lancets and the broader eastern bay a pair on the north and one on the east, all single-chamfered. The chancel has a single lancet at the west end of each side wall, and a pair towards the east end of the south wall, all double-chamfered. The east end has a stepped triplet of rather more elaborate lancets with shafted jambs and smooth ashlar dressings.