No plans or engravings of the earlier church have come to light though Hutchins in his eighteenth century History of Dorset describes the church as "having a tiled chancel, a body (nave) covered with lead, a high tower adorned with battlements and pinnacles, containing five bells, the last added 1747".
The present church is in the Perpendicular style, built of stone rubble and ashlar dressings. The tower. now short of its pinnacles for safety reasons, is very fine and probably dates from 1403, when the church first dedicated to St Michael. The first rector, however, was appointed in 1304 which suggests that there must have been a church on the site from the beginning of the fourteenth century, if not earlier.
Items of interest in the interior of the church
The Tower Staircase Door: This is seventeenth century or earlier. The door is made of nail studded battens and strapped hinges. Under the West Door some stone steps lead down to a large vaulted chamber containing many coffins of the Eggardon family. The chamber is now sealed up. The last of the family sold the remains of their estate in 1741 and was reduced to receiving relief from the parish.
Purbeck Marble Grave Slab: Dedicated to Thomas and Alianore de Luda, it records the gifts of lands and rents in 1305 in Holwell, now in Dorset but then in Somerset, to the Abbey of Abbotsbury from whence this stone probably came. No one knows for certain the story of its journey to Askerswell, but it could have been brought to the village in the civil wat when Cromwell's troops beseiged a milldam in Askerswell in 1644, inflicting severe damage on the remains of the abbey.
