Church Of St Gregory

Church of St Gregory

Parish church, originally 14th century, with refenestration and the addition of the upper stage of the tower in the late 15th century. The aisles were reroofed in 1766, and the parapets renewed in the 1780s and again in the late 20th century. The church was restored in 1844 and again in 1886–88 by Houghton Spencer, when the tower was strengthened, a blocked arch between the north aisle and transept was opened, the west gallery removed, and the south transept reroofed.

The building is constructed of squared and coursed blue lias with Ham stone dressings and slate roofs with coped verges. The parapets are quatrefoil pierced over the aisles, porch and north transept, while solid parapets finish the west gable end and south transept.

The plan consists of a four-bay aisled nave with clerestory, north and south transepts, a tower over the crossing, a north-east vestry, and a chancel. The west gable end displays a 2 by 5-light window above a 4-centred arch doorway with decorative spandrels, flanked by stepped buttresses and 3-light aisle windows. On the south front, the single-storey diagonally buttressed porch has a quatrefoil pierced parapet and carries a sundial. The porch entrance is a moulded pointed arch opening with a 4-panel compartment ceiling and built-in benches. The inner doorway is also a moulded pointed arch, with an early door featuring long hinges. Above, a crocheted niche contains a figure of St Gregory with a quill pen writing in a book, a dove beside him. The diagonally buttressed south transept has a 2 by 4-pane window and two small trefoil-headed lancets on the east wall. The chancel has two 2-light windows on the south side and a 3-light east window, with a north-side vestry inserted between 2-light windows. A 3-light window appears on the east front of the north transept, and the north front carries 2 by 4-light windows with the date 1787 discernible in the parapet. Blocked, moulded pointed arch doorways with stepped buttresses between are flanked by one 3-light window to the left and two to the right. The clerestory features 2-light trefoil-headed windows.

The octagonal tower over the crossing is crenellated with a pointed lead roof and weathervane. A string course carries gargoyles. The upper stage displays Ham stone dressing with 2-light, trefoil-headed mullioned and transomed windows, their lower lights blocked. The lower stages have limestone dressings with colonnettes to the arrises and continuous hoodmoulds over pointed arch niches containing 19th-century statues on five sides. A plain lower stage is visible at the junctions with an offset below, and there is evidence of a higher chancel roof. A stair turret with solid parapet and walkway leads to the tower.

Internally, the walls are of exposed irregularly coursed lias with Ham stone dressings. The arch between chancel and crossing is chamfered in 2 orders; the other three arches are chamfered in 3 orders, with squinches supporting the tower. The Perpendicular four-bay arcade features unusually complex moulding between colonnettes on the piers and carved capitals. The chancel has a ribbed wagon roof; the nave has a moulded wagon roof with ribs and some bosses. The south aisle roof forms a moulded compartment ceiling with one beam dated 1766 bearing the name of Thomas Harp, Carpenter. The north aisle has a similar roof.

The south transept chapel is larger than its northern counterpart and contains three blocked niches in the east wall beside a lancet, retaining traces of red pigment. Two slate floor slabs are dated 1682 and 1795, the latter inscribed to Alexander Courte.

An outstanding early 17th-century pulpit is carved with four figures representing Faith, Hope, Charity and Justice, and another unidentified figure. A vestry screen is composed of a former reading desk and panelling with three bays of linenfold and inset pieces of carving, possibly depicting the Wise Virgins; two pieces are dated 1628 and 1595. A good collection of 16th-century bench ends survives. The font is mid-14th century. A painting on wood depicts King David with a harp, similar to one in the Church of St Michael at North Curry. A Royal Coat of Arms of Queen Victoria is painted on canvas. Pieces of medieval glass remain in the upper lights of the western windows in the aisles.

This is a very fine church, similar in design to the Church of St Michael at North Curry but not so extensively restored in the 19th century.