Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This Anglican parish church at Chilton Foliat dates principally to around 1300 and the early 14th century, with significant 19th-century additions and alterations. The building is constructed of flint with Bath stone dressings; the north nave wall, tower and chancel are rendered. The roof is laid with stone tiles, with slate covering the nave.

The church comprises a nave with south aisle, south porch, chancel, west tower and vestry. The nave contains one two-light window on the north side dating to the mid-13th century; the remainder of the windows are three-light Perpendicular designs. The south aisle has 19th-century two-light windows, while the chancel features 19th-century lancet and two-light Decorated windows on its south side, with a priest's door. The north side of the chancel has a two-light window dating to around 1320, and the east window is 19th-century.

The west tower is of three stages, probably 13th-century, with paired lancets to the bell stage and reset billet hoods. It is topped with a crenellated parapet and small crocketed pinnacles. The west door dates to around 1320-50, with a 19th-century window above it.

The south porch is 19th-century with small side seats.

Interior

The nave comprises five bays with an early 17th-century wagon roof resting on panelled wall posts and brackets to short hammerbeams, restored in the 19th century. A western gallery of 1845 is carried through over the south aisle and supports the organ. The chancel arch is 19th-century with fossil marble shafts. The chancel itself has a panelled three-bay roof.

The south aisle dates to 1845 and was designed by Benjamin Ferrey. It features a four-bay arcade towards the nave on round columns, possibly replacing a similar earlier arcade.

Fittings and Monuments

The nave was refurbished in 1845 with a pulpit accessible only from the vestry and reading desks. The chancel screen is 16th-century with fluted pilasters and open lights with Gothic tracery, repaired in the 19th century. Sanctuary panelling, riddel posts and marble paving date to 1929. An octagonal font in the south aisle, carved with scenes by Reverend Thomas Mayrick, dates to the mid-19th century.

The chancel contains a 13th-century wall tomb of a cross-legged knight with shield and sword, said to be Sir Sampson Foliat of around 1250. Numerous marble wall tablets commemorate members of the Leyborne and Popham families and others, dating from 1724 onwards, by sculptors including Gaffin of London, Ternouth of Pimlico, Lloyd of Bedwyn and Hopper of London. These range from simple tablets to more elaborate monuments with draped urns, shields, putti and cornucopiae. There are also two Popham brasses of 1900 and 1910, a brass to Reverend Robert Collard (1598-1648), and hatchments of the Popham and Cooper families fixed to the nave roof.

Three benefaction boards are located under the west end of the nave, recording gifts of 1769, 1770, and 1669 and 1796 relating to an acre of land, a fire engine, a charity school endowment, and chalices and paten.

Furniture includes a 16th-century splay-sided chest said to be Spanish and a 17th-century panelled chest in the south aisle.