Church Of St Augustine

Church of St Augustine

This is a parish church with origins in the 13th century, substantially developed in the 14th century, and significantly extended and refitted in the 19th and 20th centuries. The building is constructed in red sandstone random rubble with Ham stone dressings and quoins, and slate roofs with coped verges.

The church comprises a west tower, a four-bay clerestoried nave, a four-bay south aisle with chapel, a south porch, a four-bay north aisle with organ chamber and vestry, and a chancel. The work of the 14th century includes the tower and south aisle. The nave roof dates to the mid-15th century and features cinefoil-headed three-light clerestorey windows. The north aisle also belongs to this period. A vestry was added circa 1820, with the west door becoming the main entrance in 1821. Major restoration work took place in 1883–84 when the north and south aisles were each extended by one bay, the north aisle was linked to the vestry by an organ chamber, and the west gallery was removed; the church was reseated and refitted at this time. A south chapel was restored in 1966, and the church was redecorated in 1957. Late 19th-century work was carried out by G C Strawbridge of Taunton.

The four-stage west tower is crenellated with set-back buttresses and a full-height crenellated stone stair turret. It features string courses and two-light mullioned and transomed louvred bell-openings. The south face has an empty canopied niche with a two-light mullioned and transomed trefoil-headed window above, and a three-light mullioned and transomed trefoil-headed west window. The early Perpendicular moulded west door was replaced with 19th-century double doors. The south aisle is crenellated and features a two-light west window. The south front displays a blue lias tablet to Anna Musgrave (died 1709) with a Ham stone cherub console. A single-storey crenellated porch with gabled centre contains a sundial inscribed "Timothy Lock(ett) and Will(iam) House 1725" (the donors of four pieces of communion plate). The porch has string course, gargoyles, diagonal buttresses, and moulded arched doorframes, with a 19th-century inner door and roof. A piscina lies to the right. Additional blue lias tablets, several with Ham stone cherub consoles, are set into the south wall, which also features two two-light windows between stepped buttresses in the end bay, which is unlit and contains a priest's door. The east end of the aisle has a three-light window. The chancel walls have diagonal buttresses and three-light windows to the south and east, with a reset stall two-light north window. The north aisle is crenellated and has three three-light windows between stepped buttresses, rainwater heads dated 1922, and a two-light west window. A deeply set three-light window serves the organ chamber.

The interior is whitewashed. Fragmentary remains of wall paintings were discovered on the jambs of the clerestorey windows and on the south arcade during redecoration in 1957 but have since been covered over. The tower arch is chamfered in three orders, dying into imposts. The chancel arch has a continuous double chamfer. The chancel roof is 19th-century arched and braced; the aisle roofs are plastered. The nave has a fine ribbed wagon roof with bosses, and a foliage-decorated wall plate with angels. The arcades are standard Perpendicular, with rosettes on capitals at the south aisle and at the east ends of the aisles and crossing. A rood loft stair opening, approximately 1.25 metres from the ground, is located on the fourth side of the chancel arch, with an aumbry to its right. A piscina is situated in the south aisle.

Fittings dating from 1883–84 include pews, font, reredos, pulpit, and a statue of St Augustine in a crocketed niche above; the Beer stone pulpit with stairway was designed by G Strawbridge, who was probably responsible for the other fittings as well. A screen at the east end of the north aisle comprises 17th and 18th-century fittings removed from the church in the 1880s, including the remains of a family pew dated 1614. Late 19th-century stained glass includes an east window by Clayton and Bell in memory of Rev Kingslake (1838–81). The west window contains four panels of painted glass signed and dated "Grey and Son, 1821," reset from an earlier east window. An unidentified coat of arms is set over the chancel arch on the sanctuary side.

The church contains a large collection of monuments. These include a small half-figure brass of a cleric thought to be Henry Abyndon, rector 1436–57, in the chancel; a marble and slate draped aedicule with urn to Alexander Popham (died 1767); a slate and Deer stone plaque with a bat-winged skull to George Musgrave (died 1693); a slate headstone to William Kingslake, physician (died 1666) with inscription; a painted and gilded slate tablet to Elisabeth Musgrave (died 1708) with late 18th-century additions detailing seating arrangements in the church; other 18th-century monuments; and two early 19th-century monuments signed by T King of Bath.