Church Of The Holy Cross

The Church of the Holy Cross is a parish church largely dating to the 1870s, though with origins in the 14th century and a 15th-century tower. The church is constructed of chert rubble stone with Ham stone dressings, quoins, and slate roofs with coped verges. It comprises a crenellated two-stage west tower, a four-bay aisled nave, a south porch, a chancel, and a north-west vestry. The tower features a string course, two-light louvred bell openings, a lancet on the south face, a two-light trefoil-headed west window, and a square stair turret in the north-east corner. The south aisle has two-light windows flanking a gabled porch, which has an unchamfered pointed arch opening with a half-glazed door and a moulded arched inner doorway with a 19th-century door. The east end features a two-light window, two lancets to the south front of the chancel, and a three-light east window. The vestry has a two-light east-end window and is entered from the north side; four two-light windows illuminate the north aisle.

Inside, the walls of the south aisle’s west end are rendered, exposing the random rubble. A 19th-century chancel arch is chamfered in two orders and dies into the imposts, while the tower arch is unchamfered. Circular piers support the arcades, with arches also chamfered in two orders. The church has 19th-century pitch pine roofs, monopitch in the aisles. A unique feature is a moulded arched niche within the north aisle wall, containing a rectangular depression and a cusped foliated inner niche displaying hands clasping a cup or heart, believed to be for a heart burial. A white and grey marble aedicule with a segmental pediment bears a coat of arms within a cartouche, framed by carved draped cloth. It commemorates Christopher Baker, High Sheriff of Taunton, who died in 1729, with a guilloche-terminaled blank panel below. The church contains late 19th-century fittings, including a tiled sanctuary. Notable memorial tablets include those to Col Marmaduke Williamson Browne (died 1833) and his wife, Maria Bellett (died 1828), signed by Pistell; his bearing draped spears, hers an urn. Another tablet, in a Grecian style, commemorates Richard Baron Bellett (died 1835) and is signed by Sharland; The stained glass includes windows dated 1875, 1907 and 1920.