Church Of St Mary

This is a large and architecturally significant parish church, originally built in the late 13th century but extensively remodelled in the 15th century. The nave, aisles and chancel were rebuilt in the 15th century, with a south porch and chancel chapel added later in that same century. The building underwent extensive restoration in 1872 by George Street, who removed box pews and the west gallery. A late 20th-century chapter house was added on the north side.

Exterior

The church is constructed of Dundry stone rubble with freestone dressings. The nave, aisles, porch and chapel are built in coursed freestone, and all roofs are covered in lead. The building comprises a nave with north and south aisles, south porch, north chapter house, crossing tower, north and south transepts, chancel and north chancel chapel. Most of the work is in the Perpendicular style, though some earlier elements survive, such as the south window of the south aisle.

The west elevation of the nave is particularly impressive, dominated by a large six-light window with sub-arches, pointed arch, hood mould and angel stops. Above this sits an image niche containing a seated figure, probably representing the Trinity. The gable has a coped verge decorated with fleurons and a finial. The window has a moulded cill positioned above a pointed arched west door, the surround formed of three hollow-moulded orders with a figure in a niche in the central order to each side, plus a carved hood, finial and pinnacles to the sides. Flanking this composition are three-stage hexagonal turrets to left and right with string courses that continue over the heads of the aisle windows. These turrets have lancets, a cornice and pyramidal ribbed stone roofs with carved finials, though the south finial is missing. Both turrets rise from a plinth. Each aisle has a four-light west window with polygonal buttresses to each side topped similarly to the stair turrets. The aisles have pitched roofs with cornices and parapets decorated with a frieze of cusped triangles.

The north and south elevations of the nave feature five-bay clerestoreys, all windows being pointed arched and two-light with cusped lights and quatrefoils, hood moulds and mask stops. The turrets have small pointed arched doors giving access to the aisle roofs, and upper doors to the nave roof behind a similar parapet with crocketed pinnacles and gargoyles between the bays.

The five-bay north aisle has four four-light windows with Y-tracery in the upper sections and hood moulds. Weathered buttresses between the windows have triangular shafts rising to crocketed pinnacles above a similar parapet. Large gargoyles punctuate the roofline, three remaining fully intact, though three and a half bays of parapet are 20th-century replacements. The central bay originally contained a north door with pointed arch and fleurons on a hollow-moulded surround, plus an ogee hood with large finial and pinnacles, but this is now concealed by the passage to the 20th-century chapter house and the door has been removed.

The south aisle mirrors the north, with a fine carved demonic figure serving as a gargoyle to the west. A scratch dial appears to the west of the porch. The central bay features a two-storey south porch of exceptional decorative quality. The four-centred arched entrance has a frieze of small leaves running up the jambs and along the arch. The ogee gable contains more foliage and naturalistic crockets. To left and right, blank panelling sends up ogee-curved crocketed feelers towards the gable, with more panelling above. An angel figure sits under the parapet as on the aisles, with a central image niche. Lancets light the west wall, and clasping buttresses frame the structure. A scratch dial appears on the south east buttress with the gnomon missing but figures 7, 8 and 9 visible.

The three-stage tower has diagonal weathered buttresses with crocketed pinnacles and a south east hexagonal stair turret rising above the parapet with panelled sides to the top and an open cusped parapet. The tower parapet features a similar frieze and gargoyles. An octagonal spire, truncated and ribbed with pinnacles above the ribs, crowns the tower. The initials WH and IW appear in lead, and a weathercock dates from 1822. String courses mark the stages. At the second stage all sides have a single lancet and double lancet with Y-tracery under the string course. The third stage has a clock to the east and two-light cusped windows with pierced stone tracery.

The north transept has a large five-light north window with hood mould. The stonework extends below the window, concealing tomb recesses inside. Weathered angle buttresses flank the window, and the gable has raised coped verges with a cross finial. The parapet continues from the aisle to the west. The south transept features a five-light south window with intersected tracery and four quatrefoiled circles above, hood mould with mask stops and a relieving arch. Buttresses stand to the sides. The upper east wall has a three-light window with cusped lights, flat head and hood mould, with a four-centred arched door below.

The three-bay chancel has a five-light east window with continuous hood mould, raised coped verges and cross finial, rising from a plinth with weathered angle buttresses and intermediate buttresses. The north wall has one similar two-light window, while the south wall has three similar two-light windows, the central one smaller with a pointed arched priest's door below featuring a moulded surround and hood mould.

The north chapel has a pitched roof and two north windows, both four-centred arched and three-light with fine upper tracery and hood moulds. A similar parapet with gargoyles runs along the roofline. A north east octagonal angle turret features a string course and cusped lancet, with crocketed pinnacles, spire and finial. The east window is four-light with pointed arch and continuous hood mould.

Interior

The nave has a ten-bay wagon roof with demi-figures of angels on the wall-plate and moulded and painted principals. To the east rises a tall pointed 19th-century chancel arch, above which the line of the lower nave roof remains visible along with a formerly external tower window, as seen on the other sides of the tower. To the west, the window has a four-centred arched door with foliate hood and crocketed pinnacles to left and right at the base, possibly providing access for a former gallery.

Five-bay pointed arched arcades run to north and south. The pier section forms a Greek cross with concave quadrants in the diagonals. Demi-shafts attach to the ends of the cross-arms, with thin attached shafts set in the hollows. The shafts have small capitals with bits of leaf, while the east responds have heads instead. The north east capital features a green man. On the nave side, demi-shafts rise to the roof, passing through the cill-course of the clerestorey which is decorated with fleurons, and ending in little heads which carry the roof principals.

The north and south aisles have five-bay 19th-century ceiled roofs with moulded ribs and bosses, plus wall-shafts with mask tops carrying depressed pointed trefoiled arches of wood with closely panelled tracery under the wall-plate. The windows have nook-shafts.

The north aisle retains its north door with pointed segmental head decorated with fleurons. A stone piscina with quatrefoil has been re-set in the wall to the right of the door. The north east window has remains of a shaft and carved figure on the cill, possibly from a former rood support. A pointed arch of two chamfered orders opens to the north transept, with stonework remaining at the upper level, possibly remains of a buttress to an earlier nave.

The south aisle has a west door to the nave stair turret with two convex mouldings and pointed arch. The south wall shaft is curtailed above a pointed arched door to the parvise. A moulded pointed arch opens to the south transept.

The porch has a thin-ribbed lierne vault with carved bosses including a green man, and paired shafts to the corners. The four-centred arched door has a fleuron frieze with an image niche above.

The tower rests on arches with two-wave moulding. Round shafts at the corners support ribs of a tierceron vault decorated with 19th-century painted flowers.

The north transept has a three-bay wagon roof with moulded ridge purlin and one row of purlins, plus bosses. A pointed arched chamfered west doorway with studded door featuring raised fillets led to the former rood stair. A squint to the south east has a cinquefoil head. A north east image stand survives. The pointed arch to the chapel has a hollow-moulded surround with cusped panels, slender shafts with leaf capitals and a similar panelled soffit.

The south transept has a similar roof and an east door to the tower. The inner side of the arch to the tower has two broad wave and hollow mouldings. The arch to the aisle has three jamb shafts with leaf capitals.

The chancel has a four-bay 19th-century wagon roof with brattished wall-plate. The windows have moulded nook-shafts rising from a lower cill. Continuous hood mould and cill string run along the south wall, which also contains a piscina. The north wall has a cill string and hood mould to the window. A four-centred arched skew doorway opens to the chapel. The arch to the chapel matches that between the transept and chapel, with the outer shaft of the arch continued through the middle of a squint. The south priest's door has a flat inner head.

The chapel has a framed ceiling in nine panels from the 19th century. Stone angel corbels remain from the former roof. The east window has tall elaborate image niches to left and right with clustered pinnacles to the tops. A pillar piscina stands to the right. A four-centred arched north door opens to the stair turret.

Fittings and Monuments

The fittings include two carved oak figures of St Peter and St Paul in the nave, made for the organ of Bath Abbey in 1708 and shown in Baroque attitudes. A 19th-century stone octagonal font stands in the south aisle. An 18th-century panelled chest survives in the north transept. Two Jacobean sanctuary chairs are preserved in the chancel.

The north transept, known as the De Wyck Chapel, contains important medieval monuments. Two effigies rest in recesses with broad cusped ogee gables, representing a knight and lady of circa 1325, possibly Sir Robert de Gyene and his wife Egelina de Wyck. An alabaster monument commemorates Sir Richard Newton, died 1449, and his wife, died 1475, showing good recumbent effigies on a tomb chest with ogee niches filled by figures of angels carrying shields.

In the chapel stands a monument to Sir John Newton, died 1488, and Isobel of Cheddar, died 1498. Recumbent effigies lie on a tomb chest with quatrefoils in the recess, broad buttresses and pinnacles to left and right, and a low Tudor arch with openwork cusps, tracery in the spandrels and crocketing. A relief of the Annunciation appears on the back wall. A frieze of ten niches for figures retains half a figure, with an upper fleuron frieze and cornice.

Later monuments in the north transept include a marble tablet to Edward Day, 1802; a marble tablet to Henry Hawes, 1809, by Wood of Bristol; a marble tablet to John Norman, 1837; and a marble tablet with pediment to Sarah Battiscombe, 1736.

The south transept contains a marble tablet with draped urn to John Cam, 1795.

In the north chapel are a marble monument with broken pediment and shield to Henry Grimsteed, 1714, by M. Sidnell of Bristol, and a marble monument with draped urn to Hannah Markham, 1768.

The chancel has a marble monument to Thomas Wickham, 1829.