Church Of St Mary And St Edward

CHURCH OF ST MARY AND ST EDWARD

Parish church and manor house chapel with 12th century origins, virtually rebuilt by Henry Woodyer between 1887 and 1890 for Henry Martin Gibbs, son of William Gibbs of Tyntesfield. The church is built in local lias stone, largely squared and snecked, with Bath stone dressings to windows and Dundry stone used elsewhere. The lower stage of the tower is in coursed and squared ashlar of Dundry stone. Many of the dressings display Woodyer's characteristic quoins with irregular inner edges, a technique borrowed from Butterfield to simulate age. The roofs are slate.

The building is predominantly Decorated in style, though with some lapses such as Early English mouldings to the bell chamber openings. The plan is slightly complex but each part is clearly distinct in the manner advocated by Pugin. The layout comprises a two-bay chancel with a gabled two-storey vestry to the north, organ loft and angled stair turret. The nave has four bays with a north porch and west tower. There is a diagonal baptistry, a south aisle, and a family chapel approached via the chaplain's vestry to the west. A later lobby and covered way connect the elements.

The impressive west tower is of the Somerset Locking and Bleadon type. It has three stages with diagonally set crocketed pinnacles framing the upper stage. A pierced traceried parapet features further diagonally set pinnacles at corners and midpoints. A taller spirelet rises from the stair turret at the north-east corner. Lucarnes appear on each face with projecting florets at each angle. The bell chamber has pairs of windows, three to the east face flanked by corbelled pinnacles. Most windows are three-light with varying tracery patterns for nave and chancel. The east window has a vessel-shaped feature in the tracery supported by reverse arch segments. The two-light south aisle windows have slightly more complex tracery. All labels have good head stops representing figures of the establishment—kings, queens, bishops and knights. Rather heavy diagonal buttresses appear at corners. The north porch is roofed in stone slabs with a tall gabled crossing and lean-to; it has a moulded doorway in wider ashlar surround with cusped head and flanking shafts, and decorative ironwork to the door.

The vestry gable is flush with the wall of the south aisle. The lobby and chaplain's vestry to the west of the south aisle run parallel to but distinct from the church, allowing passage to the boiler-house beneath. Decorative rainwater heads are dated 1887 to the chancel and 1888 to the nave, with an 18th-century rainwater head to the south aisle bearing a cherub and the Gibbs coat of arms.

The interior is excellent and unaltered. The parochial nave is separated from the chancel by rich timber and wrought-iron screens; the family aisle is separated by a rich parclose screen. The chancel has a cosmati work floor and a boarded wagon ceiling. A heavily carved reredos frames the east window with enriched choir stalls. The nave retains all its low pews and a tiled aisle, with a plaster wagon roof. The most distinctive feature is an internal masonry porch reflecting the design of the exterior. The pulpit has carved panels and is reached by steps from the wall with a miniature rib vault.

The south aisle Gibbs Chapel has a marble alley and sanctuary floor, with a panelled and tincture ceiling and enriched ceilure over the east bay. Statues are housed within, and there is a blind east window with a very heavily carved reredos. High panelling with crested top lines the chapel. Evidence of a circa 1400 window opening survives at high level at the west end of the south wall, and traces of a large earlier opening exist roughly centrally. The best monuments, mostly to the Gibbs family, are wall memorials in this chapel. Military decorations of the family are displayed in a showcase.

Fittings include a Decorated-style chalice-type font, excellent early stained glass by Kemp in a complete series, and a large medieval bell dedicated to St Cecilia beneath the tower arch. Superb ironwork adorns the nave door with lions in the manner of St Giles, Cheadle, designed by Pugin. An unusual altar with corner shafts and ceramic inlay is present. The vestry contains well-made cupboards for vestments, desk, table, chairs and a piscina. Similar joinery details appear in the chaplain's vestry.

The patron was the son of the man who paid for Keble College, and the slightly old-fashioned style may result from his mother's influence, as she contributed to some of the costs. The church embodies high Victorian ideas of medieval religion and is particularly valuable for being complete and unaltered.