Church Of St Catherine

The Church of St. Catherine is an Anglican parish church located in Drayton, dating back to the 15th century. It underwent restorations in 1855 by Maurice Davis of Langport and again in 1896. The church is constructed from coursed and squared lias rubble with Hamstone dressings, featuring slate and lead-sheeting roofs, coped verges, and finials. It showcases a Perpendicular architectural style and consists of a nave, chancel, north aisle, north vestry, south porch, and a west tower.

The two-stage tower is supported by small diagonal buttresses at the bottom stage and topped with an embattled parapet. It includes a stair-turret, gargoyles, and an openwork iron spirelet with a weathercock. The tower features 2-light bell-chamber windows with stone quatrefoil grilles, a 3-light west window, and a pointed-arch west doorway with a moulded surround, leading to a plank door with iron strap hinges.

Inside, the church has a four-bay nave with slender buttresses and 3-light windows. The gabled porch has a moulded outer doorway and a simple chamfered inner doorway, adorned with carved heads as label stops, and a plank door with scrolly iron hinges. The north aisle is embattled and has 3-light Perpendicular windows, except for the west window, which features reticulated tracery under a depressed-arch head, dating from around 1350. The chancel includes 2-light windows and a deep 4-light traceried window at the east end, along with a Priest's door to the south.

The interior is plastered with flagstone floors. The nave has an unceiled wagon roof, possibly from the 17th century, while the aisle has a lean-to roof incorporating early work, and the chancel features a ceiled wagon roof. Notable interior elements include a panelled chancel arch with two niches facing each other in its imposts, a moulded tower arch, and a four-bay arcade to the aisle with piers of four-hollows section. The church also contains a Norman tub font, a piscina, an aumbrey in the aisle, and a pair of coffin stools dated 1739. Other features include a Jacobean altar table, an 18th-century wrought-iron parclose screen, 19th-century pine pews, and a carved wooden pulpit. Early 20th-century additions include a tower screen, choir stalls, and readers designed by Martin Travers. Additionally, there is an 18th-century strong box, an 18th-century wall monument, and two principal 19th-century wall monuments, along with four mid to late 19th-century stained glass windows and two fine 20th-century windows.