Church of St Mary is a Grade I listed building in the Somerset local planning authority area, England. First listed on 9 February 1961. A C13/C15 Church.
Church of St Mary
- WRENN ID
- sharp-forge-thistle
- Grade
- I
- Local Planning Authority
- Somerset
- Constituency
- Bridgwater MP: Sir Ashley Fox (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 9 February 1961
- Type
- Church
- Address
- Church of St Mary, Coast Road, Berrow
- OS grid reference
- ST 293 524
- Coordinates
- 51.26691, -3.01353
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of St Mary is a parish church located on the Coast Road in Berrow. It dates from the 13th century and 15th century, with restorations carried out in the 19th century. The church is constructed of coursed rubble and features slate roofs with copings, including a finial on the eastern roof. The layout includes a nave, chancel, south aisle, and a west tower.
The tower is three stages high, embattled, and has diagonal buttresses on the lower two stages. It features 2-light bell chamber windows on the north and south sides with a quatrefoil interlace design, and a 3-light window on the west side above the stair turret, topped by a battlemented parapet over the south aisle. The south doorway, dating from the 13th century, has a continuous roll-moulding porch that was rebuilt in the 19th century, with a door dated 1707 and a 13th-century stoup inside.
The south aisle consists of five bays with 2 and 3-light windows, showcasing much renewed Perpendicular tracery. The north side of the nave has three windows with similarly renewed 3-light tracery, while the chancel has two bays with 2-light windows. Inside, there are 13th-century chancel and tower arches supported by corbels. A 15th-century niche on the north wall of the nave contains the remains of a 15th-century tabernacle crosshead, with the base of the shaft located in the churchyard.
The church features a ribbed 15th-century octagonal font with foiled niches, and a 14th-century quatrefoil font under the tower, although its base is missing. There is a pulpit dated 1621, a reading desk from 1631, and a Jacobean altar table. A royal arms display from 1603 is located in the south aisle, along with a carved bressumer dated 1637, which was once part of a former western gallery. The church has 19th-century pews and an altar rail, as well as a pedimented tablet in the south aisle commemorating Joseph Durston from 1770, next to a tablet for William Durston from 1806.
The church contains much 19th-century stained glass, with 20th-century windows including one in the northeast corner of the nave from 1918 dedicated to The Fallen of the Great War, and another in the south aisle from 1920 by Joseph Bell of Bristol. The nave has a plastered ceiling, while the south aisle has a 19th-century lean-to roof and the chancel has a 19th-century roof. There are two 18th-century chairs in the chancel. The church has a peal of six bells, three of which are dated 1668, 1721, and 1774.
Local climate
Church of St Mary receives an average of 830 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 54% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 71% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 23 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 76% of listed buildings. Of these, 8 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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