Church of St Thomas

Church of St Thomas

This is a parish church in Kentisbury with a 15th or early 16th century west tower and original nave walls and south porch. The chancel was rebuilt, a north aisle was added, and the church was restored and the nave re-roofed in 1873-5 by Edwin Dolby of Abingdon. The building is constructed of shale stone rubble with ashlar dressings and has slate roofs with apex crosses to the gables.

The church comprises a west tower, nave, chancel, north aisle and south porch. The tall west tower has three stages with a rectangular stair turret on the north side and an embattled parapet. Set back buttresses with tablets decorated with two Tudor roses are built into the first stage of each buttress. The tower has tall Perpendicular transomed two-light bell-openings on each side with louvres, except to the west where the opening has been blocked and a single straight-headed light inserted. The middle stage has tall windows of two round-arched lights. The main west window is of 19th century Perpendicular style with four lights and a headmould, and the west doorway is pointed-arched with a labelled hoodmould and moulded surround. To the left of the south porch is a 19th century two-light pointed-arched window with quatrefoil tracery.

The 15th century south porch has a depressed pointed-arched doorway with a 'B' type moulded surround and replaced stiff-leaf capitals. Above is a slate sundial by John Berry dated 1762, now in a niche. The 15th century porch has a waggon roof with moulded ribs and purlins with carved bosses and end demi-bosses at the intersections. Pointed-arched windows of the 19th century include one of three lights to the nave and two of two lights to the chancel on the south side. A three-light east window has a pointed-arched corbelled hoodmould. The north aisle has a pair of two narrow trefoil-headed lights with plate tracery at the east end, three pointed-arched windows of two lights on the north side, and a tall two-light window to the east end which has a chimney pot with crenellated cap to the gable.

The interior retains original 19th century fittings of high quality, including arch-braced roofs to the nave and north aisle. The chancel waggon roof is ceiled and elaborately painted with stars and panels of winged saints interspersed with floriated panels. The north arcade consists of three bays with short piers of four semi-circular half-shafts, moulded capitals and human-head corbels to the outer lip of the arch. An unmoulded, virtually semi-circular-headed tall tower arch leads to the nave. The pointed chancel arch has human-head corbels and a triple cluster of engaged columns with moulded capitals.

In the chancel, trefoil-headed recesses are preserved on the north and south walls. A stone reredos has four blind trefoil-headed niches on each side of a marble surround to a triptych scene painted on leather. The altar table has three open panels to the front with intersecting tracery. The floor is of elaborate patterned tile. 19th century choir stalls are carved with running foliage, and the front benches have open tracery backs with fleur-de-lys bench-end finials.

The nave contains a shoulder-headed doorway to rood loft stairs. A semi-circular timber drum pulpit on a stone base is pierced with seven quatrefoils above trefoil-headed lights, with original paintwork intact. The nave has 19th century seating and a 19th century font on a stem of a half-shaft.

The north aisle has an elaborate chapel at the east end dedicated to the Openshaw family and relations of Thomas Openshaw, the rector responsible for founding the north aisle. The chapel is enclosed by timber parclose screens on two sides, with seven bays on the south side and four bays and a central doorway on the west side, with fleur-de-lys finials to the triangular heads of the cusped lights and a crenellated top rail. On the north side is a sedilia of five bays with trefoil-headed niches divided by marble colonnettes and with quatrefoils containing shields in the spandrels. The inner arches of the windows lighting the chapel spring from slender marble colonnettes with quatrefoil tracery above the trefoil-headed lights.

Wall monuments include a 17th century slate tablet to Elizabeth Randal on the south side of the nave. Pair of 18th century slate tablets give 'An Exact Account' of all the rectors of the parish since the reign of Queen Elizabeth, also giving details concerning the building of the parsonage. An 18th century slate tablet on the right has a winged angel bust to the head, skull, shield and hour glass to the base with an inscription to members of the Richards family. A 17th century slate tablet is inscribed with details of Richard and Elizabeth Richards. At the west end of the nave is a late 18th century slate tablet on the south side to members of the Richards family, and an early 19th century tablet on the north side to Charles Sweet, Rector and his wife. A large stone slab below is inscribed with the name John Knight (d.1650).

The stained glass is entirely of 19th century date, with square-leaded panes and coloured margin panes. The east window is by Moore of London, in memory of J. O. Openshaw (d.1861). In the north aisle, the east window is a fine window to James and Ann Pilling. Two windows on the north side commemorate James Openshaw (d.1857) and Frederick Loveband and Mary Smyth (1894), the latter by Oswald Fleuss.