Parish Church Of St Denys (The Minster Church)

Parish Church of St Denys (The Minster Church), Warminster

This is a cruciform parish church of Norman origin, standing about half a mile north-west of the Market Place on the site of an Anglo-Saxon minster. The church comprises a long nave with aisles, south porch, transepts and crossing tower, chancel with a two-bay chapel to the south, and vestry to the north. The materials are various limestones, roughly coursed, with mostly leaded roofs and the south chapel tiled.

The medieval crossing tower and transepts survive from the 11th century and late 14th century, though the nave was entirely rebuilt during a major restoration by Sir Arthur Blomfield between 1887 and 1889. The low crossing tower is embattled with small two-light Perpendicular bell openings. A stair turret on the north side of the tower is awkwardly joined to another turret serving a former rood loft. The north transept window contains four lights with a transom under a four-centred arch, while the five-light east window is also notable. South of the chancel stands a late 15th century chantry chapel to the Maudit family, featuring four-light windows under broad arches.

The new nave built by Blomfield is impressively long in Neo-Perpendicular style, with ten clerestory windows, an embattled parapet and small pinnacles. A large four-light west window with transom sits above a low entrance narthex with three openings. Low lean-to aisles with square-headed windows and deep buttresses run along the sides, and a gabled south porch provides entry from that direction.

Inside the church, surviving evidence of the 11th century building is limited to a round-headed opening in the north transept, though Norman masonry may be embedded elsewhere in the crossing and tower. Several sculptural fragments remain from the late 14th century rebuilding, including a small high-quality figure of an angel now placed in the south aisle above the entrance. The crossing arches, with their two chamfers on the east and west sides sandwiching narrower four-chamfered arches to north and south, suggest a late 13th or early 14th century date, with all mouldings dying into the piers without capitals. The late 15th century south chapel contains a good roof with four medieval angel corbels, a piscina, a two-bay arcade to the chancel and a panelled arch into the transept. An unusual arrangement on the east wall allows the inner window arch to extend to ground level, incorporating the former reredos and altar position. An opening in the north transept shows evidence of a former rood screen between the crossing and chancel.

The five-bay nave features arcades with quadrilobe piers and an arch-braced roof without collars or tie-beams, but with two tiers of wind braces and alternate pendants.

The Victorian restoration involved exceptionally elegant and generous refurnishing on High Church principles. The chancel was extended westward into the crossing and furnished with a splendid ensemble of fittings. The organ case is an outstanding piece, crafted from oak by George P. England of London in 1792 and originally from Salisbury Cathedral. The chancel fittings from 1887 to 1889 represent the work of major craftsmen of the period: the reredos by the firm of Harry Hems of Exeter, featuring a gilded stone frame and metal figures treated to appear like marble; choir stalls carved by Woolcott for Hems; elegant metal chancel screens and gates by Singer of Frome; and tiling by Godwin of Lugwardine, Herefordshire. Nearly complete nave benches and an octagonal pulpit with tracery and inlaid marble were also provided by Hems. A square font on granite pillars with a pretty mosaic floor surround featuring fish dates to 1889.

The church contains much noteworthy stained glass spanning over 150 years. The south transept south window by O'Connor (1840) retains the painterly early 19th century tradition with almost psychedelic colours. The north transept north window (1855) displays spectacular Passion scenes. The chancel east (1887), south chapel east (1888) and west window (1891), all by Burlison & Grylls, represent exceptional work, with the west window being a tour de force of bold colour and Renaissance composition. Further windows include: Sanctuary north (circa 1887) by Powell & Sons with designer Henry Holiday; north aisle west and north aisle north (above doorway), circa 1888, by various makers; south aisle Good and Bad Samaritans by Clayton & Bell (circa 1892); south chapel south windows by Powell & Sons (1913–14); a vigorous Arts and Crafts design by R. Anning Bell in the south aisle (1921); and a window by Christopher Webb (1950).

The church retains numerous wall monuments from the 17th to 19th centuries, including a pictorial brass to Elizabeth Carter, died 1649, showing her kneeling with four children, and a Baroque tablet to William Buckler from the 1730s.

The church appears to have undergone a remodelling of the tower and crossing in the later 14th century. The nave was replaced circa 1723–24, and again in 1887–89. Although it is often said that the later rebuilding almost entirely removed the medieval church, substantial and very interesting parts of the old structure in fact survived.

The restoration resulted from a partnership between Canon Sir James Philipps, the Anglo-Catholic rector from 1859 to 1897, and Arthur William Blomfield, one of the most active and successful church architects of the Gothic Revival. Blomfield was articled to P. C. Hardwick and began independent practice in 1856 in London. His early work is characterised by a strong muscular quality and the use of structural polychrome often with continental influences; he later favoured the Perpendicular style. He became diocesan architect to Winchester and architect to the Bank of England from 1883. Blomfield was knighted in 1889 and awarded the RIBA's Royal Gold Medal in 1891.

The church sits on a low hillock in a well-kept graveyard with a good array of table and slab tombs and pitched paths. To the south stands an enormous yew tree, probably dating from the 14th century and supported by numerous posts.