Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Compton Pauncefoot

Anglican parish church, primarily 15th century with restoration and addition of a north aisle in the mid-19th century. Built in roughly cut and squared Cary stone with Doulting stone dressings, and stone slate roofs between stepped coped gables topped with cross finials.

The church follows a four-cell plan consisting of a single-bay chancel, two-bay nave, north and south aisles, a small north-east vestry, south porch, and west tower with spire.

The chancel features a double plinth, eaves course, and offset corner buttresses. Its east window contains three lights with 15th-century tracery and an arched label with square stops. A matching two-light south window has plain stops to its label, while the north window is similar but set within a deep hollowed recess with square foliated label stops.

The small vestry is 19th century in construction, with plinth, string and eaves courses, a coped east gable, and a medieval-style north-east chimney with conical top. Its east wall contains an arched corner doorway with a two-light 16th-century style flat arched window to its right, and a cusped lancet in the gable.

The north aisle is 19th century, though its west window may have been transferred from the south aisle, now blocked. It has plinth, bay buttresses, and eaves course, with 15th-century style three-light traceried windows in hollowed recesses featuring square stopped arched labels. The south aisle has similar windows—two in its south wall and one in its east wall.

The south porch is possibly late 15th century but appears to be built differently from the main church, though its details match the aisles. Its outer archway is moulded with a pointed arch set beneath a square label with carved foliate spandrels. Above is a cusped ogee-arched statue recess with foliated base, containing a 19th-century statue of the Virgin and Child. A small incised sundial appears to its right. The inner doorway is a relatively plain moulded pointed arch.

The tower comprises two stages, possibly earlier than the main church. It has a plinth, angled corner buttresses extending the full height of the taller lower stage, string courses, and a plain shallow parapet. An octagonal spire with ribbed edges rises above, featuring a traceried band at mid-height and crowned with a weathervane reading 'J H 1804'. The west window contains three lights with later Curvilinear tracery and square stop label. The upper stage has pairs of cusped lancets on each face.

The interior is predominantly 19th-century in character, with boarded and panelled ceilings featuring moulded ribbed and bossed vaulting, all with faded 19th-century colouring. The chancel contains a simple piscina and squint to the south aisle, with a wide panelled chancel arch. Fittings are mainly 19th century, with 1934 dado panelling added to the chancel. The nave arcades are 15th-century in character; the north is a 19th-century copy of the south, both with four-shaft, four-hollow columns. A smaller, possibly 14th-century tower arch also survives. In the south aisle are six quatrefoil panels with shields beneath the south-east window, and a small carved stone tablet commemorating Anne Whiting, who died in 1535.

Fittings include a nicely carved stone pulpit and pews arranged without a centre aisle. The font is possibly 19th century, comprising a plain octagonal bowl on a circular shaft. A 1953 carved reredos stands at the south altar.

Memorials include a large monument blocking the former west window of the south aisle, commemorating several generations of the Hunt family. The last among them, who died in 1830, reshaped Compton Lodge into Compton Castle. A marble monument in the north wall of the tower commemorates John Hunt, who died in 1660, and opposite stands a simpler marble memorial to William Bragge, who died in 1778.

The church contains stained glass by several artists. Five picture glass windows were created by Capronnier of Brussels and date to 1877. The west window was made by Kempe in 1896, and the side chancel windows are 20th-century work by Easton.

The church is first mentioned in 1262, with the first recorded rector documented in 1316. Major rebuilding probably occurred following a 1485 bequest by Sir Walter Pauncefoot for 'the building of the church' and 'the making of myne ile there'.