Parish Church Of St John The Baptist

1. 5120 CHURCH SQUARE Midsomer-Norton Parish Church of St John the Baptist ST 6654 4/21 19.5.50 II* 2. C15 west tower (upper stages C17). Perpendicular style. Aisled nave of 1830 and C20 chancel and Lady Chapel. Five bay aisled nave, architect John Pinch of Bath for the Rev. Augustus Asgill Colville. Ashlar built with crenellated parapet and crocketted finials over weathered buttresses. Tall 3 light Perpendicular style windows. Projecting porch in 2nd bay from left with crocketted corner finials, Gothick rainwater heads, Gothick plaster vault and Gothick panelled doors. Three stage west tower, lower stage probably C15 freestone, upper stages C17 ashlar. Set back buttresses to lower 2 stages, capped by diagonal finials. Upper stage has 3 light segmental headed windows with a form of Somerset tracery. High parapet with moulded coping and crocketted corner and centre finials on panelled dies. Niche on 2nd stage contains a statue of Charles II who donated 3 of the 8 bells. Plain 2 bay chancel, added 1924, with Perpendicular style tracery, 2 buttresses at east end arched over path. The Lady Chapel added to south 1936, with niche at east end for statue of Virgin with canopied screen. Note that Pinch's north aisle wall has a cusp headed niche with ogee label on it too. Interior: tall slender arcades, formerly with Galleries (c.f St Mary's Bathwick in Bath). Panelled ceilings with enriched floral bosses, corbelled braces with openwork tracery. Blind tracery ogee pattern vault in chancel. Norman font: plain chalice-type with scallop band below rim. A number of C19 fittings, including pulpit, retained. In the tower, remains of a C13 wooden effigy of a knight. A number of memorials especially on north wall: parents of Charles Harbard, dated 1678, broken segmental pediment with Ionic pilasters on angel busts and with swagged sides. A number of others, particularly on north-west wall, to John Smith, died 1829; an urn with a putto. Several memorials of the Savage family (of Norton Hall) especially 2 C18 ones and 2 Gothick ones. The Churchyard rises well above street level and retains a number of mostly early C19 headstones, 11 chest tombs, mostly C18 and early C19 and one square altar tomb with draped urn capping (for Millard family, about 1728-29). This church has a number of affinities with St Mary's Bathwick in Bath, also by Pinch. A number of features belonging to the church he rebuilt are to be found at No 83 (Vicarage) North Road and No 37 Priory Close. To west is a low early C19 chest tomb on 6 metal balls (one missing). To south-west the famous memorial to the 12 miners killed in 1839 when their rope was severed; the slab covering this was renewed in 1965.

Listing NGR: ST6626054191