Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This is a parish church in Brompton Ralph, substantially developed over several centuries. The building comprises a 15th-century tower and south door, a nave that was refenestrated and given a vestry in the 16th century, and further enlargements and restorations in later periods. The church is said to have been largely rebuilt in 1738. The tower was restored in 1797 and 1804. A north aisle was added in 1847. The chancel was rebuilt, the church was reroofed and restored in 1881 by Samuel Shewbrooks of Taunton, the builder.

The exterior is constructed of red sandstone random rubble, rendered in part, with red sandstone dressings and slate roofs with caper verges. The building consists of a west tower, a four-bay nave with north aisle, a south porch, a north-east vestry, and a chancel.

The tower is crenellated and has three stages. It features diagonal buttresses, two-light trefoil-headed bell openings with Somerset tracery, a string course, a lancet on the south face, another string course, a two-light west window, and no west door. A stair turret occupies the north-east corner.

The south front displays 19th-century hoodmoulds, a lancet to the left of a single-storey gabled porch, and a pointed arched opening chamfered in two orders and dying into imposts. The inner doorway is a pointed arch, also chamfered in two orders. To the right is a large 16th-century four-light cinquefoil-headed mullioned window with moulded surround, followed by a long 19th-century window. A large buttress separates these. The diagonally buttressed chancel has two-light windows with quatrefoil decoration to the spandrels, a three-light east window, and a two-light mullioned window with decorated spandrels in the vestry. The north front has a pointed arch doorway and a butt-joint at the junction with the north aisle. Four two-light windows between buttresses are positioned along this face.

The interior is rendered. A 19th-century chancel arch has double-chamfered jambs and is largely obscured by a screen, though the letters "BOA" are visible on the south jamb and "CHIN" on the north jamb. A 19th-century arcade features pointed arches chamfered in two orders with clustered columns. The tower arch is pointed and chamfered. A pointed arch leads to the turret stair, which has a late medieval studded plank door with long hinges.

The roofs are 19th-century work: a boarded barrel vault covers the chancel, the nave has an arch-braced roof, and the aisle has a lean-to roof with arch-bracing resting on corbels.

A late medieval rood screen of three-two-three bays, partly reconstructed to a design by F Bligh Bond and executed by A C Toms in 1963 in memory of Robert Toms, is present in the church. Jacobean panelling is used as a reredos. A rare example of dated altar rails survives, with turned balusters and a moulded handrail inscribed "Edward Hobbes Gent and Roger Bishop Churchwardens Anno Domini 1667". A 17th-century chest is present. The nave contains 16th-century benches, including a detached piece of wood dated 1596, while benches in the north aisle are 19th-century copies. A panelled pulpit dates from the late 18th or early 19th century. An octagonal font has carved panels of decoration on the bowl, with one panel begun at the base; it is said to be 16th-century, and has a 17th-century flat ribbed cover.

Two painted boards dated 1821 display the names of churchwardens and the Ten Commandments. Another wooden board documents the 1881 restoration. A memorial tablet with a draped urn, signed by T King of Bath, commemorates Thomas Canplin, who died in 1780. A tablet to Meredith Powell, who died in 1642, is also present. A carved chair with a coat of arms in the sanctuary may date to the 18th century. An organ is said to have been inserted in 1910. Bligh Bond's design for the restoration of the screen, with or without an attic, is hung in the vestry.

The Victoria County History notes that there is no evidence to support Pevsner's assertion that the architect of the 1881 rebuilding was H Parsons.