Church Of St Mary Magdalene

The Church of St Mary Magdalene is an Anglican parish church dating from the 12th century, with alterations from the 13th and 14th centuries. It was restored and an apse added in 1869-72 by C.E. Davis of Bath. The church is constructed of coursed rubble and coursed squared rubble with freestone dressings, and has Cotswold stone slate roofs with coped raised verges.

The west tower is of two stages and features a saddleback roof, a two-light Perpendicular style window on its west face, and plain and cusped lancet windows to the bell stage. A buttress with off-sets is located on the south side of the tower. The north side of the nave features three windows: a plain 19th-century lancet, a 14th-century decorated window with cusped heads, and a two-light casement window in ovolo moulded mullions and surrounds. The south side of the nave has a small round-headed window on its west side and a 19th-century two-light decorated style window.

The chancel’s apse has three plain round-headed windows with imposts and a continuous string course. A south projection contains a doorway within a roll moulded surround. The gabled south porch is constructed of large squared masonry blocks and features a double-chamfered pointed doorway under a hoodmould linked to a string course. The 12th-century south door has beaded and spiral moulded columns with scalloped capitals, an arch of two orders consisting of zig-zag and an outer band of chip-carved rosettes, and an inner roll moulded surround.

Inside, the chancel arch has been much restored, with two columns bearing scalloped capitals, heavily enriched zig-zag ornament, and a hoodmould with beading. Above the chancel arch is a restored round-headed niche containing 13th-century sculpted figures of the Virgin and Child. The font is of ashlar with an octagonal bowl on a stem. The pulpit is Jacobean, polygonal with carved and enriched panels, a back, and a sounding board. Bench ends were carved by the Rector and friends, around 1880. Monuments are found throughout the church, including a 14th-century figure of a recumbent lady in the tower, a brass to Elizabeth Walsche who died in 1441, and numerous inscribed marble plaques, particularly commemorating the Walrond and Gunning families. A Greek Revival sarcophagus is present, bearing the inscription of John Gunning who died in 1843, and there are two inscribed stone tablets from 1588 and 1616 relating to the Powell family.