Church Of St Brendan

Church of St Brendan

A parish church comprising a nave, chancel and south porch built in 1738, with the tower rebuilt in 1828. The whole building was substantially restored and enlarged in 1873 with the addition of a north aisle, north transept and vestry. The structure is built of dressed and roughly dressed stone with some brick dressings to the vestry. The 19th-century work is snecked stone with ashlar dressings. The roof is of slate, graded over the porch and nave.

The plan consists of a four-bay nave with a lean-to north aisle and south porch, a two-bay chancel with a north transept serving as an organ chamber, and a lean-to north-east vestry, all dominated by a west tower. The 18th-century work displays a Gothic survival style, whilst the 19th-century additions are in the late 13th-century Gothic Revival style.

The tower rises in four stages and features a chamfered plinth with clasping buttresses of chamfered copings. The buttresses have obelisk finials to the corners with small gables at the base of each face. The belfry openings consist of two louvred chamfered arched lights with cills and hoodmoulds with uncarved stops (the north side of the belfry is blind). A louvred chamfered lancet is positioned in the third stage to the south. The second stage has a chamfered arched two-light south window with Y-tracery and a hoodmould with uncarved stops. The south doorway is chamfered and arched with a nail-studded boarded door and a hoodmould with uncarved stops. Small staircase windows are cut into the north-east buttress.

The nave has a chamfered plinth. The 19th-century left-hand window consists of two four-centred hollow-chamfered lights with carved spandrels and a square head with a hoodmould. To the right are a pair of windows of two ogee trefoil-headed hollow-chamfered lights with carved spandrels, square heads and returned hoodmoulds with carved square stops. Between the first and second windows from the left is a chamfered round-arched south doorway with a 19th-century nail-studded boarded door with decorative wrought-iron strap hinges.

The south porch is gabled with a chamfered plinth and a round-arched entrance with voussoirs. The reveals are rendered and lined as ashlar. A pair of late 19th or early 20th-century lattice wooden gates sits above. A slate datestone above the entrance is dated 1707 (probably relocated). The porch interior has wooden side benches and a plastered elliptical arched barrel-vaulted roof with transverse ribs and a ridge rib.

The north aisle, built in 1873, has low windows of two trefoil-headed chamfered lights.

The chancel has a parapeted gable-end with a cross at the apex and a coping. A pair of chamfered trefoil-headed lancets are positioned to the south. The east window consists of three trefoil-headed lights (the centre one ogee) with two quatrefoils in the tracery, a hoodmould with carved stops and a stone arch over. The chamfered arches are typical of the Gothic Revival work.

The north transept has a chamfered ashlar verge and a north window of two chamfered lancet lights. The vestry is positioned in the angle of the chancel and transept with a chamfered stone verge, a one-light wooden casement to the east with brick dressings, and an arched doorway to the east with a Gothic panelled door.

The interior reveals substantial 19th-century work. The nave walls are stripped of plaster. The roof is probably from the 18th century and consists of a plastered elliptical arched barrel-vault with chamfered wooden wall plates. A tall Gothic tower arch dominates. The 19th-century south window has chamfered depressed rear arches and chamfered cills. The three-bay aisle arcade consists of octagonal piers with moulded bases and capitals and stilted double hollow-chamfered arches dying into responds at each end. The aisle has a lean-to roof with windows featuring segmental hollow-chamfered rear arches and chamfered cills.

The chancel arch is a 19th-century addition of hollow-chamfered profile with chamfered reveals and an ovolo-moulded inner arch springing from moulded corbels. The chancel walls are of snecked dressed stone with a flush ashlar band at cill level of the east window. A three-bay roof features a hollow-chamfered wall plate, chamfered arch-braced collar trusses, trussed rafters with collars, ashlar pieces, single purlins and a diagonally-boarded soffit. The south windows have roll-moulded segmental rear arches and chamfered cills; the east window has a roll-moulded rear arch. Continuous plain-chamfered arches connect the chancel with both the north aisle and the north transept or organ chamber.

The transept roof is a trussed rafter design with collars, ashlar pieces and a chamfered wall plate with a boarded soffit. The north window has a hollow-chamfered rear arch and the boarded vestry door features wrought-iron strap hinges.

The furnishings are predominantly of late 19th and early 20th-century date. An elaborately carved arcaded wooden reredos, arcaded altar rails and carved choir stalls, all dating from the early 20th century, were created by John Floyd, a Brendon carpenter. A sedile is positioned beneath the south-east window. A 19th-century organ sits beneath the arch to the north. A carved wooden lectern by Joseph Totterdell of Brendon is also present. The stone pulpit is polygonal with traceried panels and a circular stem, given in 1873 (as recorded by a brass plaque on the stem). The pews are of pine.

A 12th-century stone font rests on an octagonal step, with a chamfered square base, circular stem and scalloped square bowl; it has a 19th-century ironbound wooden cover. A further old font or piscina (probably assembled from separate parts) features a carved circular bowl, carved circular stem and circular base. A painted royal coat of arms on board hangs above the south door. Late 19th-century stained glass fills the nave south windows and the chancel east and south windows. An inscription in the east window records that it was given by John Crick in memory of Richard Crick (died 23 March 1884).

The church stands in an isolated position high up to the west of the village. It replaced a church of 12th-century foundation at Cheriton, located in the parish to the south-west of the present building, which was abandoned in the early 18th century and of which little now remains. The church has also been said to have been dedicated to St Mary the Virgin.