Church Of St Lawrence

The Church of St Lawrence is an Anglican parish church with origins in the 12th century, and substantial rebuilds or additions in the 13th and 15th centuries. It was restored in 1887, including a rebuilt tower. The church is constructed of coursed and squared rubble with ashlar dressings, featuring coped verges, cruciform finials, and tile and lead roofing.

The building comprises a nave, chancel, south aisle, south transept, south porch, a north organ chamber with a vestry, and a west tower. The tower is a severe, unbuttressed two-stage structure with two-light bell-chamber windows, a polygonal stair turret, and an embattled parapet with corner pinnacles. The west door opening incorporates earlier materials. The nave has a blocked Norman north doorway, re-set and appearing not in its original state, alongside two and three-light windows. The south aisle features buttresses, a pierced parapet with trefoils in triangles, pinnacles, and three-light windows with elaborate tracery and labels. The transept is contiguous and built in a conforming style. The two-storied south porch has a pierced parapet, a niche where a statue once stood, and moulded door openings both inside and out; the interior includes a stoup and a niche with a canopy, also formerly holding a statue. The short, single-bay chancel has a two-light Perpendicular window to the south, a lancet to the north, and a late 13th-century east window of two lights with encircled quatrefoil tracery and a foiled rere-arch.

The interior is plastered and set on tile and encaustic tile floors. The roofs are largely 19th century, supported by 13th/15th-century corbels carved with human heads; wall shafts extend along the outer wall of the aisle and some corbels appear restored to 19th-century designs. A late Norman tower arch with one order of columns and trumpet caps leads to the nave. There is a three-bay arcade to the aisle and similar arches to the transept and chancel; a 19th-century arch provides access to the organ chamber. The church contains a 13th-century octagonal font, a 13th-century piscina in the chancel, a Perpendicular stone pulpit, a Jacobean chest, and a Jacobean chair. Also present are late 19th-century pews, choir stalls, altar rails, a brass lectern, a large neo-Decorated reredos, and an organ. A monument to George Rodnei, dated 1587, serves as a reredos to the transept, incorporating a four-centered arch, columns, and an entablature but without an effigy. A 1615 monument is located behind the organ, along with a 17th-century floor slab. Other notable features include a good pedimented wall monument inscribed "J. Tuckey Wedmore Fecit 1779" and several principal 19th-century wall monuments by Bath and Bristol firms. Late 19th-century stained glass is found in the east window.