Church Of The Holy Rood

The Church of the Holy Rood in Buckland Newton is a parish church with a complex history spanning the 13th to 19th centuries. Parts of the chancel date back to the 13th century, with significant rebuilding of the chancel and general restorations occurring in the 19th century, particularly in 1839, 1841, 1849, and 1869, under the direction of T.H. Wyatt. Originally associated with Glastonbury Abbey, the church exhibits work in both the Early English (13th century) and Perpendicular (15th century) styles.

The external walls are rendered, and the nave roof is leaded with a gable end, while other roofs are concealed behind parapets. The church comprises a chancel, nave, north aisle, south aisle, a south porch, and a west tower. The tower is a two-stage structure with an embattled parapet, a rectangular vice, diagonal west buttresses, and gargoyles along a string course. The west doorway has a two-centred arch with continuous jambs and a label with carved stops; the west window is of 3 lights with panel tracery under a two-centred head. A clock is set into the west face of the second stage, and belfry windows are square-headed with two lights.

The north and south aisles each feature three bays, with windows of an unusual design: three lights under two-centred heads, where the tracery incorporates elongated reticulations formed by arched transoms. The aisles also have an embattled parapet with a string course and buttresses. The chancel has three bays with lancet windows, a 19th-century east window composed of three graduated lancets, and a south door with a two-centred head. The south porch is two-storied with a polygonal vice turret, diagonal buttresses, and a lierne vault with carved bosses. The outer door has a four-centred head within a square surround with quatrefoils in the spandrels and a stopped label; the inner door features a moulded Tudor arch with continuous jambs. The upper floor of the porch has a two-light, square-headed, stone mullioned window.

Inside, the nave arcades have three bays with two-centred arches supported by piers featuring four shafts with hollow chamfers and capitals and bases. Trefoiled chancel rear-arches are on Purbeck marble columns with capitals and bases – the eastern one being a 19th-century addition. The tower arch features flat jambs and a two-centred, moulded head, and the chancel arch is two-centred with blind panels to the archivolt. Squints offer views to the aisles, and the chancel’s tie-beam roof rests on 15th-century head corbels. The nave has a tie-beam roof, while the aisle roofs are braced. Seating incorporates 15th-century linen fold panels and bench ends with floriate finials. A 15th-century octagonal font is adorned with carved flowers on an octagonal stem. Monumental inscriptions from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries are also present. A 12th-century figure of Christ in Majesty is reset above the exterior of the south door, and a 7th or 8th-century carved figure with a bow and spear is displayed above the interior of the south door. An 18th-century hexagonal pulpit completes the interior fittings.