Church of St George is a Grade II* listed building in the Wiltshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 23 March 1960. A Medieval Church.

Church of St George

WRENN ID
fossil-chapel-tarn
Grade
II*
Local Planning Authority
Wiltshire
Constituency
Salisbury MP: John Glen (Con)
Country
England
Date first listed
23 March 1960
Type
Church
Period
Medieval
Address
Church of St George, Church Lane, Fovant
OS grid reference
ST 996 295
Coordinates
51.06535, -2.00681
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Church of St George is an Anglican parish church largely dating to the 13th and 14th centuries, with significant late 15th-century alterations and a Victorian restoration in 1863 by T.H. Wyatt. It is constructed of dressed limestone with a tiled roof, incorporating fishscale tiled bands.

The church plan comprises a west tower, a nave with north and south aisles, a southwest porch, and a chancel with a south chapel. The gabled, 19th-century south porch features a Tudor-arched, double chamfered doorway with a quatrefoil above, a diagonal buttress, and a lancet window. The south aisle has two late 15th-century windows with three lights, set within a Tudor arch and a hood mould, alongside a square-headed three-light window, also with a hood mould, and a buttress. The south chapel contains a reset 12th-century doorway with coupled columns, leading to a planked 19th-century door. Both the chancel and chapel east ends have diagonal buttresses, each with a 14th-century window of three lights with reticulated tracery and hoodmoulds. The north chancel side features a 19th-century cusped lancet and a pair of ogee-headed lancets. The lean-to north aisle has a 16th-century window of three lights to the east, and on its north side are a 19th-century three-light, two two-light cusped square-headed windows, and a chamfered pointed doorway. The west end of the north aisle features a two-light cusped square-headed window.

The prominent, good-quality late 15th-century tower has a moulded plinth, diagonal buttresses, and string courses. A polygonal stair turret with an open parapet is set against the northeast corner. The west side has a moulded pointed doorway with angel terminals to the hoodmould, a four-light Perpendicular window on the second stage, and two-light Perpendicular windows with pierced stone louvres to the bellstage. The parapet features a quatrefoil frieze with gargoyles, decorative cusped triangles with open quatrefoils on the merlons. The south side has crocketed image niches and a blocked ogee-headed window on the second stage.

Inside, the porch has a 19th-century inner door with painted biblical inscriptions, and a pointed doorway leading to the aisle. The nave features a pointed, barrel-vaulted, panelled ceiling. A tall, double-chamfered tower arch has a 19th-century screen integrating reset 15th-century cusped open arcading. The baptistry in the tower has a polychrome tiled floor, and a Tudor-arched doorway leads to the stairs. The four-bay north arcade has double-chamfered arches on cylindrical piers, accompanied by a lean-to four-bay rafter roof. The south aisle contains a three-bay pointed arcade resting on octagonal piers, and a moulded Tudor-arched doorway at the east end of the arcade. It also features an arch-braced collar roof. The south chapel is now used as an organ chamber. A 19th-century moulded chancel arch has foliated corbels with ballflower ornament, and a pointed, barrel-vaulted, panelled ceiling is present. An unusual double arcade separates the vestry and chancel. Fittings include a 19th-century limestone octagonal font on a marble column, a stone and marble pulpit with relief-carved heads of Apostles, and cast-iron and brass railings leading to a low stone wall across the chancel. The church also has 19th-century pews and choir stalls, and an 1833 charity board in the nave. A brass plaque in the chancel bears a Latin inscription recording the rebuilding of the tower by George Rede, the rector, in 1495. The church possesses significant group value.

Local climate

Church of St George receives an average of 820 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 51% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 59% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 34 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 51% of listed buildings. Of these, 15 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

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