Church Of St Mary Magdelene

Church of St Mary Magdalene

This is a parish church of Norman origin with significant 12th-century features and substantial later additions. The building comprises a west porch, west tower, nave, south aisle, south porch, chancel, and north vestry. It is constructed of limestone coursed freestone, with the first two stages of the tower built in rubble with stone dressings and quoins. The roofs are stone-tiled with raised coped verges and cross finials to the chancel and aisle.

The church shows architectural development across several centuries. A Norman chancel arch and 12th-century string courses on the chancel represent the earliest work. The 14th century saw the addition of a south aisle with windows in Decorated style. The top stage of the tower and Perpendicular style aisle windows are also 14th-century additions. The porch was rebuilt in the 17th century, while the south porch and north vestry were added in 1853 by architect T.H. Wyatt.

The two-storey gabled west porch features a pointed-arched west door with chamfered surround and double doors with strap hinges. Above is a two-light mullion and transom window with trefoil heads to the upper lights and a hood mould. Similar blocked doors exist to the north and south with stone gutters.

The three-stage tower is a prominent feature. The first stage has lancet windows to the north and south, and a rectangular lancet to the west with a small carved head set in the stonework above. A south-west stair turret in three stages has plinth, string courses and small lancets. The top stage of the tower is short and has two-light windows with trefoil heads and pierced stone tracery on the north and south sides, with three similar windows to the east and west featuring continuous hood mould. The tower is embattled at its parapet with a cornice and two gargoyles to the north and south with waterspouts to the north. A clasping buttress with bench-mark is positioned to the north west.

The nave has three two-light windows with elongated quatrefoils at the top and hood moulds to the north. The south aisle features two three-light windows with hood mould and mask stops, and a similar three-light east window, with a low string course and weathered buttresses.

The gabled south porch has a finial and a pointed-arched door in a chamfered surround with broach stops and hood mould with mask stops. Trefoil-headed lights flank the door, and the inner door has a hollow-moulded surround.

The two-bay chancel features a three-light Decorated east window with hood mould and four trefoils in the upper section. Billet-moulded and wheat ear-moulded string courses are returned to the north and south sides and carried round buttresses. A two-light pointed-arched window with hood mould and a lancet are to the south, with a low blocked rectangular leper window to the right. The site of a former rood stair survives in the angle with the aisle. To the north is a small gabled vestry with a trefoil-headed door and a pair of trefoil-headed lights to the west, while the chancel itself has a lancet and a two-light window with hood mould.

Interior

The west porch has stone benches to its sides. The inner double door has a pointed arch and a surround of two chamfered orders with hood mould, and a pointed-arched light above. The five-bay roof features arched-braces, collars and collar purlins.

The tower contains a pointed-arched door to the stair and a transitional pointed tower arch in two chamfered orders with slender jamb-shafts displaying embryonic stiff-leaf ornament on their capitals. A 19th-century wooden screen is positioned at the base of the tower arch.

The three-bay nave has a roof with tie-beams and supporting braces pierced with quatrefoils, hexagonal king-posts, queen-posts to each side, collars and upper king-posts with braces to all upright members. Moulded stone corbels support the roof. The windows have chamfered rere-arches to the north. The south arcade consists of three bays with piers featuring semi-cylindrical shafts alternating with concave mouldings and moulded bases.

The south aisle has a common rafter roof with a passage squint to the chancel, which features chamfered ribs to its vault.

The chancel arch displays outer orders of chevron mouldings and an inner order of roll-moulding. Large inner jamb-shafts have heavy moulded block capitals, with two slender jamb-shafts to each side featuring narrow moulded capitals, cable-moulded shaft-rings and moulded bases.

The chancel has a five-bay roof that is ceiled, with painted moulded ribs and bosses and a brattished wall-plate. High round-arched recesses flank the east window. A south piscina adjoins the blocked leper window, and a trefoil-headed door leads to the north vestry.

Fittings and Monuments

A font of early 13th-century date stands in the tower, featuring a scalloped bowl supported on keeled shafts. A Jacobean carved polygonal wooden pulpit is positioned in the nave, with 19th-century panelled pews throughout. A hatchment of 1842 in the south aisle records gifts to the parish.

The chancel contains monuments including a 14th-century brass matrix of Sir John de Rivere (c.1350) showing the outline of a foliated cross and a knight holding a model of a church. A marble tablet with urn commemorates Joseph Haycock (1756), whilst a marble tablet simulating parchment records Lord William Somerset (1851) and was created by Tyley of Bristol. A marble tablet commemorates Jane Grey (1798). A marble tablet by Cooke of Gloucester with an inscription panel for Lady William Somerset (1843) is now missing. A neo-Greek marble tablet to Helen Somerset (1849) is also by Tyley of Bristol.

In the nave is a brass to John Ceysill (1493) showing a man in civilian clothes with a hare, bell and cherries, accompanied by a Latin inscription. A marble tablet to Nathaniel Osborne (1799) was created by Reeves of Bath.

The south aisle contains a stone tablet with verse to Gabriel Russell (1663) and a stone tablet to his wife Katherine (1667). A baroque stone tablet with cherubs and heraldry, surmounted by a red hand, commemorates Edward Topp (1699).

Glass

The chancel east, north and south windows contain stained glass by Ward and Hughes (1868). The east window in the aisle is by Heaton and Butler (1867), and the central north window in the nave is by Alexander Gibbs (1871).