Church Of St Catherine

Church of St Catherine

An Anglican parish church of 12th-century origin, extensively altered and remodelled around 1490 for Prior Cantlow of Bath. The tower and north side were restored in 1704, with further restoration in 1846 and decoration in 1880 by Powell of London.

The church comprises a west tower, nave, south porch, chancel and north vestry. It is built in ashlar and rubble with freestone dressings beneath a stone slate roof featuring coped raised verges and cross finials.

The west tower rises in two stages with an embattled parapet and pinnacles. The bell chamber has three-light Perpendicular style openings with tracery of quatrefoils and circles set back in a hollow chamfered plain arch. The south face carries a large sundial and an inscription commemorating the 1704 restoration.

The nave has a single cusped light to the west of the porch and a three-light Perpendicular style window to the east with cusped heads beneath a square hood mould. The north side displays single and three-light late 19th-century Perpendicular style windows, with buttresses featuring off-sets.

The projecting gabled south porch has an off-set buttress on its east side and a double chamfered arch. The chancel contains two- and three-light windows matching the nave style, with a large four-light east window featuring a four-centred head. A south priest's door is set in a double ogee and hollow moulded surround. The south doorway has a four-centred head and double ogee-hollow-ogee moulded surround with hoodmould and stops, together with a studded plank door with strap hinges.

Interior features include a chamfered tower arch springing from scalloped capitals on a cylindrical corbel. The chancel arch is Early English with double chamfering, resting on 19th-century columns. Two demi-figures of angels holding shields occupy the chancel arch wall, and a squint passes through the north pier. The chancel has a barrel roof with plain interspaces and coloured and moulded ribs and bosses.

The late 15th-century pulpit, repainted in the 19th century, is a half octagon with two panels of arcading to each side. The font dates from the late 12th century on a 13th-century base, comprising an ashlar square bowl with blank arcade and interlace decoration to the upper part and fluting below, mounted on a cylindrical stem. The vicar's pew incorporates 15th-century bench ends and decoration. The painted and tiled tower and chancel arches date from around 1880 by Powell.

The stained glass is of particular significance. The east window is dated 1490 and was restored in 1846; it displays three figures of the Rood and St Peter, with an inscription below and the arms and kneeling figure of Prior Cantlow, surrounded by borderwork featuring crowns and letters of the donor's name. The south chancel window contains three 15th-century roundels, two painted with eagles holding scrolls inscribed with Cantlow's name and a central figure of St Catherine trampling on the Emperor Maxentius. The nave south window features 15th-century roses and suns. Heraldic glass of 1846 in the chancel and nave commemorates Colonel Strutt.

Monuments in the chancel include William Blanchard, died 1631, depicted as two kneeling figures—he in armour—with four kneeling children below, set within Corinthian columns beneath a broken pediment with arms; and William Blanchard, died 1686, with an inscribed plaque flanked by Tuscan columns and a segmental pediment. The nave contains a monument to Anne Dyer, died 1815, with an inscribed plaque and urn above.