Church Of St Eanswith

Church of St Eanswith, Brenzett

This is a parish church with origins in the late 11th or 12th century, subsequently enlarged and altered during the 13th, 14th, 16th and 18th centuries. It was restored in 1826, 1876, 1902 and 1984. The building is constructed of roughly coursed stone, with the north chapel built of thin slabs of ironstone and sandstone. The roof is plain tile, with wood shingles to the spire. A weatherboarded bell turret is positioned at the west end.

The plan comprises a nave with a west bell turret, a lean-to south chapel or aisle at the west end, a south porch, a small chancel, a north chapel and north aisle. The west turret is rectangular with louvres to north and south, topped by a splay-footed octagonal spirelet with weathervane.

The nave dates from the late 11th or 12th century and was extended westward in the 14th century. It has two west buttresses and a small chamfered rectangular light to the gable. The west window is a chamfered 2-centred arched opening with hoodmould and Y tracery, at least partly restored. The west doorway is moulded with 2-centred arch and broach stops. The south-west aisle is of 14th-century date and integral with the west end of the nave, with a continuous roof. It contains a chamfered west lancet with trefoil-headed light and no other windows. On the south elevation of the nave are two buttresses and one window either side of the porch, each 2-light in 14th-century style with the name of the churchwarden inscribed under the hoodmould and the date 1826. Four projecting stone corbels sit just below the wall-plate.

The stone south porch has a plain gable and a roughly chamfered 2-centred arched outer doorway. Inside are 9-light ovolo-moulded wood mullion frieze windows to east and west with round-headed lights, a moulded wood cornice with oak leaves carved on the chamfer stops, and steeply cambered arch-braced tie beams at north and south ends. The inner doorway is chamfered with broach stops, rebuilt with a square head.

The chancel dates from the late 11th or 12th century but was largely rebuilt in 1902. Herringbone stonework appears at the base of the south wall, and there is a diagonal buttress. A 2-light 14th-century south window has a renewed head and hoodmould. The east window is of 19th or early 20th-century date, with 3 lights and intersecting tracery under a hoodmould.

The north chapel is of 13th-century date and projects further north than the north aisle. It is gabled, with a 2-light east window retaining original jambs but with restored Y tracery, and a chamfered pointed-arched north window. The north aisle is also of 13th-century date but was extended westward by one bay in the 14th century. It is a low structure with a lean-to roof and unbroken north wall. The west wall is continuous with the nave and contains a chamfered trefoil-headed west lancet. A dormer was inserted at the east end in 1925.

Internally, the nave has a 3-bay north arcade with columns and piers resting on low chamfered padstones. The two east bays are 13th-century with chamfered pointed arches and piers with undercut moulded impost strings and chamfer-stops to the base. The west bay has a broad pointed double-chamfered arch with an inner order springing from attached semi-octagonal columns with moulded capitals and chamfered-stopped bases. The flanking outer order has no imposts but cushioned chamfered-stops to bases. A similar arch stands opposite to the south. The chancel arch is pointed, chamfered to the east and double-chamfered to the west, with an inner order probably set above re-used Norman jambs bearing zig-zag moulding. Plain arches open to the north chapel to south and west, dying into the walls.

The west tower is timber-framed, probably of 14th-century origin but altered in the 19th century and reconstructed in 1902. It stands on a rectangular frame with the body of the nave, with four arch-braced corner posts and two 19th or 20th-century intermediate supports, and a boarded floor at wall-plate level.

The chancel and nave roofs are of 19th-century date, as is the boarding to the north and south aisles. The nave retains a moulded medieval cornice and two 16th-century tie-beams.

Fittings include a stoup with cusped ogee head on the south wall of the north chapel, a small communion table with turned legs and rails, and an 18th-century pulpit with fielded panels. A veneered hexagonal tester is now positioned in the south aisle. An 18th-century reredos at the east end of the north chapel is painted to resemble stone, with fluted Doric pilasters and Ionic modillions supporting a moulded cornice with a broken-based central pediment bearing the Decalogue and Creed. Four oval text boards decorate the north wall of the north aisle. Royal arms dated 1780 are displayed on the north wall of the nave. Stained glass in the east window was designed by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake in 1874. Traces of red and yellow paint survive on the stonework.

A monument in the north chapel commemorates John Fagge (died 1639) and his son John Fagge (died 1646), erected after 1646. It comprises two reclining alabaster figures on a white stone chest with black marble plinth, lid and panel, with side pilasters bearing coats of arms.