Church Of St Thomas

ORCHARD PORTMAN CP ST22SE THURLBEAR

5/95 Church of St Thomas

25.2.55

GV I

Parish church. C12, C14 chancel rebuilt, C15 tower built and church refenestrated, chancel refenestrated and north chapel demolished c1850, 1856 tower restored. 1861 church restored and refitted, north aisle arcade taken down and restored. Roughcast over rubble, squared and coursed blue lias tower, Ham stone dressings, nave, chancel and aisles all under same slate roof, coped verges. Plan: chancel, 4-bay nave, narrow north and south aisles, south porch, west tower. Crenellated 3-stage tower, diagonal buttreses west end, setback buttresses east end, string courses, gargoyles, 2-light louvred bell openings, cinquefoil headed window below, Perpendicular mullioned and transomed 4-light west window, moulded pointed arch west doorway, C19 door, north east stair turret; south front 2-light windows flanking single storey gabled porch, pointed arch opening, plaster board with applied half-timbering to interior, moulded arch inner doorway, C19 door; south front of chancel lancets flanking blocked Tudor arch doorway, diagonal buttresses to east end, 3 lancet windows, lancets to north front flanking engaged semi-circular pillar, three 2-light windows to north aisle between stepped buttresses, blocked moulded pointed arch opening. Interior: rendered. Plastered barrel vault to nave, monopitch roofs to aisles, ribbed roof to chancel. Four bay arcade of C12 circular piers with scalloped capitals. C19 wooden chancel arch carried on angel corbels, squint in sout east wall, moulded semi-circular tower arch. Blocked ogee-head opening to rood stair at east end of north aisle, three quarters of blocked Tudor arch opening in north aisle. Norman circular font. C19 fittings, including Romanesque style arcaded panelling to choir stalls and screen to tower. Pulpit. No monuments of note. The engaged column on the exterior of the chancel belongs to a chapel or transept that was demolished in the mid C19. (Sixsmith, A History of Thurlbear, 1956; Pevsner, Buildings of England, South and West Somerset 1958).

Listing NGR: ST2658821110