Church Of St Benedict

Church of St Benedict

The Church of St Benedict in Glastonbury is a mainly medieval building of substantial architectural merit, designated Grade I for its important Somerset Perpendicular features and its wider significance to the town's religious and commercial history.

The church is constructed of coursed Lias limestone with dressings of yellow Oolitic limestone, possibly sourced from Doulting quarries, which were owned by Glastonbury Abbey. The plan comprises a west tower, a four-bay nave with clerestory, north and south aisles, a chancel with adjoining shorter chapels, a three-bay south aisle with short transept, north aisle and porch, and vestries at the north-east.

The medieval fabric dates from the late medieval period: the chancel was perhaps renewed in the mid-14th century, the tower perhaps in the mid-15th century, and the north aisle and porch date to circa 1493-1524, built under Abbot Bere. The south chapel was added in 1862 by Benjamin Ferrey. General restoration, a new south aisle and transept, and reconstruction of the north aisle and porch using original materials were carried out by J.D. Sedding between 1884 and 1886.

The tower is the church's most distinguished feature. It rises in three stages with set-back buttresses and an embattled parapet. Complex angle pinnacles were added in the mid-19th century. Each face of the tower displays two long belfry lights with central mullion and transom, featuring Somerset tracery. Between the belfry lights, a diagonally-set attached pinnacle rises from an angel corbel at the base of the stage. The middle stage contains a short two-light window with flanking statuary niches. The west front is treated with a four-light window and a four-centred west door with richly moulded frame and hoodmould featuring a demi-angel. The nave, north aisle and porch are embattled. The chancel has angle buttresses, and its east window tracery still shows signs of curvilinear Decorated work. The north porch contains a stoup and bears the arms of Abbot Bere over the door; it projects eastward with a shallow recession containing a slit window, possibly indicating a porch altar. The low 15th-century priest's vestry at the north-east was rebuilt in 1884-6 and was extended northward with a one-and-a-half-storey choir vestry (faculty of 1913). Sedding's south aisle of 1884-6 features window tracery following that of the north aisle. The gabled south transept has a south window of three lights with one transom. The aisle and nave on the south side have solid parapets.

The interior contains notable features. The tower arch is panelled. Within the tower, a tierceron vault with large bell hole can be seen. The nave and north aisle have shallow cambered roofs with moulded beams dating to circa 1500-20; Abbot Bere's initials appear on a boss in the north aisle. These roofs, though doubtless repaired, appear substantially original and rest on elaborate angel corbels bearing shields and other devices. The Perpendicular nave arcades follow the usual Somerset pattern of four hollows with attached shafts and moulded ring capitals to the shafts only, with four-centred arches. The chancel is relatively plain, featuring a ribbed wagon vault, probably of 19th-century construction.

Among the principal fixtures is a fine piscina of circa mid-13th-century date: a trefoil-headed opening beneath a gabled hoodmould with stiff-leaf crockets, supported by an octagonal bowl on a pendant corbel with smaller pendants flanking. Over the chancel arch stands an ex-situ sculpture of a Crucifixion, probably of 15th-century date. The triangular ground with curved edges suggests it came from the spandrel between two arches, perhaps part of a reredos or screen. A good 15th-century font features rectangular cusped panels around the bowl and a panelled stem. The stone panelled and traceried pulpit is late Victorian. Nave benches with traceried ends were provided by Sedding. Stained glass includes the east window, perhaps of the 1860s, matching the period of the south chapel; a west window (Sermon on the Mount) of 1959; the south transept's south window; and two windows in the south aisle, all dating to circa the 1880s. Within the tower is a fine ledger slab, probably of Blue Lias limestone, commemorating Henry Gold (circa 1711), featuring a circular incised armorial with Baroque mantling. The south aisle west wall displays a provincial early 18th-century tablet with broken pediment and floral frame.

The church's history is closely bound to Glastonbury Abbey. A church of St Benignus is believed to have been dedicated circa 1100, at the site where the relics of that saint rested during their translation from Meare to the Benedictine Abbey of Glastonbury in 1091. The dedication was changed to St Benedict in the mid-17th century. The church stands exactly 500 feet west of the Abbey gatehouse, suggesting a possible direct sight line before Benedict Street and Magdalen Street were developed. It functioned as a dependent chapel of St John, the town parish church, which itself fell under the Abbey's ecclesiastical jurisdiction from at least the 8th century.

The window tracery of the north aisle and porch, though probably renewed, displays characteristically Tudor forms—cusped inverted-Y shapes and ogee lights—comparable to the dated north aisle windows at Dunster (1504). The tower has traditionally been assigned to circa 1500-20, but its decidedly simpler tracery without ogee lights suggests a mid-15th-century date would be more appropriate.

The church's Grade I designation reflects the substantial medieval remains, particularly the nave and north aisle with their timber roofs of circa 1500, the north porch with its interesting altar projection, and the very fine west tower as significant examples of Somerset Perpendicular style, despite some over-restoration. The survival of a very good Early English piscina hints at the quality of the earlier medieval church. The building provides important evidence for the ways Glastonbury Abbey used saintly relics to attract pilgrims and how these activities affected the historic development of Glastonbury beyond the Abbey walls, remaining a prominent feature in the town. The Victorian enlargements and restorations by Ferrey and Sedding, both widely respected exponents of the Gothic Revival, add further architectural value.