Church Of St Dunstan

The Church of St Dunstan is a later medieval parish church featuring a Saxon tower and a 17th-century pew. It consists of a nave and chancel, each with a north aisle, a west tower, and a south porch. The walls are constructed of ragstone rubble, topped with tiled roofs. The Saxon tower, built in two different phases, is made of ragstone rubble and has a pyramidal roof that is splayed at the base. The upper level of the tower has single-splayed windows, while the lower level features double-splayed windows. The nave and chancel are combined, with a single south lancet window in the chancel. Other windows are square-headed and date from the 14th and 15th centuries. The early 14th-century north aisle of the nave was built alongside the chancel, which was established as a chantry chapel by Sir John Colepepper, who donated Duke's Place to the Knights Templars. The chapel was fitted out at two different times in the 17th century as the Gear Pew, which includes pews surrounding a vault. The space opens into the nave and north aisle through two five-bay colonnades featuring slim wooden Corinthian columns on panelled pedestals that support a heavy wooden cornice. There are stairs leading down to an external door and entrance to the vault. A doorway between the two parts is topped by a broken segmental pediment that contains the coat-of-arms of the Geary family. The entire doorway and the backs of the adjoining pews are adorned with carved wood floral decorations. There are open work panels behind the two pews, with a parapet supporting volutes on either side of the door. The pew has a panelled wooden roof with a rough cornice. Inside, there is an aedicular tablet dedicated to Sir Nicholas Millar, dated 1658, and a large marble monument to Leonard Bartholomew and his wife, Elizabeth, dated 1721, featuring reclining figures on a shelf attributed to Richard Crutcher.