Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary

Parish church with origins in the 13th century, extensively developed and modified through to the 20th century. The church comprises a 13th-century nave and aisles, 14th-century chapels, a late 14th to early 15th-century South chapel extended one bay east, a circa 1490 tower, an early 16th-century rebuilt chancel, and a South porch. The nave was reroofed and the South aisle extended two bays west in the early 16th century. A west gallery was removed in the mid-19th century, and an organ chamber was added in 1867. The church was refenestrated and underwent alterations including the removal of 17th-century windows, which were subsequently replaced by Perpendicular-style windows. The tower was reroofed in 1952 and restored between 1976 and 1978.

The building is constructed of red sandstone random rubble with Ham stone dressings, an ashlar porch, and a squared and coursed stairturret. The roofs are slate with coped verges. The plan consists of a west tower, a four-bay nave, a four-bay South aisle, a three-bay South chapel, a South porch, a five-bay North aisle, a North East organ chamber, and a chancel.

The west tower is the most distinctive external feature: a flamboyant three-stage crenellated composition with crocketed pinnacles set at angles, decorative pierced merlons, set-back buttresses crowned with pinnacles, string courses, and gargoyles. Each face carries pierced two-light mullioned and transomed bell openings with Somerset tracery and pinnacled shafts. Angels on three faces carry second-stage two-light mullioned and transomed openings with Somerset tracery, flanked by empty crocketed niches, with pinnacles set in the angles. The west door has a four-centred arch with decorative spandrels flanked by empty crocketed niches. A full-height North East stairturret has a pyramid ashlar roof and weathervane.

The South aisle features a pierced parapet with quatrefoil decoration and a three-light window at the west end. The South West corner contains a single-storey porch with a cambered gable, similar pierced parapet, gargoyle, diagonal buttresses, and a moulded arched opening flanked by empty crocketed niches. The ceiling is fan vaulted with a four-centred arch doorway and decorative spandrels; the door itself is a ribbed 15th-century example. To the right on the South aisle is a damaged blue lias memorial stone to the Bult family. The chapel features three broken pedimented two-light windows between stepped buttresses, a three-light east window with a four-centred arched doorway to the right with decorative spandrels, and above a blue lias tablet with skull commemorating George Knight, died 1681. Diagonal buttresses strengthen the chancel, which has a five-light east window; the North front has a three-light window and the vestry a two-light opening. The North aisle, without parapet, has three three-light windows between stepped buttresses and a lancet at the west end.

The interior is rendered. The four-bay arcade comprises 13th-century circular piers with double-chamfered arches, with Perpendicular arches to the chapels. Two bays between the chancel and South aisle have rosette capitals; the eastern bay is lower. The tower arch is a four-centred form with moulding reaching to the wagon roof; the tower is unusual in being wider north-south. A decorative wooden chancel arch is carried on stone corbels. The nave and chancel have ribbed wagon roofs with bosses and decorative wall-plate (the latter). The aisles have 19th-century ribbed wagon roofs. A four-panel moulded compartment ceiling covers the tower space. A blocked four-centred arch rood loft opening exists in the North aisle wall. An unglazed three-light Perpendicular window with ferramentee is at the east end of the North aisle. The South aisle contains an aumbry.

Notable interior fittings include a large table tomb without effigy to Sir John de Warre in the South chapel, dating to the late 14th century, constructed of Ham stone with a polished Purbeck marble slab and cusped ogee-decorated sides bearing heraldic shields, repainted in 1936. A 20th-century glazed Gothic-style screen occupies the west end with the organ above. A poor box is dated 1676. A Perpendicular font has a wooden canopy and pulley dated 1900. A brass chandelier by Thomas Bayley of Bridgwater is dated 1773. A substantial collection of early 16th-century bench ends in the nave includes one dated 1522. A hexagonal pulpit of 1742 has an inserted stair. An unusual pair of lead panels dated 1706 and 1779, inscribed with names of churchwardens and a plumber, were recovered from the roof during the 1952 restoration. A 17th-century Italian painting of St Catherine of Alexandria in a handsome contemporary frame hangs in the South aisle. In the South chapel is a marble and slate tablet by Greenway of Bristol commemorating Coplestone Warre Bamflyde, died 1791, the gentleman architect who lived at Hestercombe, Cheddon Fitzpaine.