Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a parish church located in Corscombe village. The west tower and north porch date to the 15th century, while the core of the nave is original. However, the nave and chancel were largely rebuilt in 1875-7 by J Mountford Allen of Crewkerne. The church comprises a west tower, nave, south aisle, chancel, and north porch. It is constructed of rubble-stone walls with Ham stone ashlar dressings, and features plain tile roofs.

The three-stage west tower has string courses. A canted newel staircase is situated on the north wall, ascending to the middle stage and capped with a hipped stone slate roof. The west doorway has a moulded pointed head and jambs from the 15th century, with a plank door. Above the doorway is a two-light stone mullion window with a large casement moulding. Two-light bell openings possess a straight quatrefoil over, and are set within a crenellated parapet topped with crocketed pinnacles. The tower is unbuttressed. The north wall of the nave has three renewed stone mullion windows; one, to the west, has a 19th-century label and head stop, while the other two retain 15th-century head stops on their labels. The chancel features two two-light windows with geometrical tracery heads, along with labels and head stops, all dating to the 19th century. The east window is of four lights with plate tracery, and is also a 19th-century addition. The north porch, also from the 15th century, has a pointed arch and moulded jambs, with a low-pitched gable and gargoyles. The north door’s sculpted composition on the exterior features standards set diagonally with angel-head brackets, which originally supported images. The door-head is embellished with crocketed and finialled canopies with traceried soffits, and niches with half-angel brackets.

Inside, the two-centred tower arch has a single respond and two outer rolls. The nave, rebuilt in the 19th century, is accessed via a doorway north of the porch. The five-bay south aisle has a conventional pier design and pointed arches, and is covered by a 19th-century roof of arch-braced, collar construction, and features king-posts, a wall-plate with pierced quatrefoils and embattlements. The chancel arch is a 19th-century design with three responds and plain moulded capitals exhibiting heavy Perp-style mouldings. The chancel roof is of a Marsard-style, internally divided into 20 compartments. A south organ chamber is accessed via a wide two-centred arch. A pointed door in the south chancel wall has a label with foliage stops. The font is a stone, octagonal design with two cusped panels on each side, with a plain octagonal stone base; the stem and base have been replaced. The pulpit is octagonal, made of stone and supported by short marbled colonettes with foliage capitals, and features Venetian Renaissance detailing, including sunk paterae. The east window contains stained glass dating to 1877. A wall tablet by Chislett of Beaminster commemorates Joseph Bishop (1823) and Sarah (1800), while another, by Wilkins, is dedicated to Elizabeth Bowring (1837), and is adorned with pilaster-strips, a draped sarcophagus, and a bay-tree motif.