Stawell Church

STAWELL CP STAWELL ROAD (North side) ST33NE 2/70 Stawell Church 29.3.63 - II*

Anglican parish church. C13, C14, C15, much restored 1874. Coursed rubble, freestone dressings, slate and tiled roofs with coped verges, cruciform finials. Nave with continuous chancel, south porch, squat west tower; simple low building. The tower with saddle-back roof, diagonal buttresses, weathered set-off about three-quarters of the way up, a square stair-turret to north, good Perpendicular west window, west door, 2 obscured tablets on east face are incised 1610, probably marking a restoration; the upper portion of the tower is believed unfinished, the roof a compromise. Gabled porch with an outer doorway of 2 orders, much altered, consecration cross, simple lancet on the west elevation. Two-bay nave, lancets on the north and south sides, also on south side a 2-light window of 1874 in neo-Decorated style. Chancel with lancets to north and south, to south with a cusped head. Three-light east window of 1874 in neo-Decorated style; priest's door to south, studded with strap hinges. Formerly on north side of the nave a 3-bay C14 arcade, some external evidence but obscured by robust 2-stage buttresses of 1874 with set-offs. The inside of the porch benched on flagstone floor, C19 inner plank door. Interior plastered on tile floors under an unceiled wagon roof of 1874. Further evidence of the arcade in the ford of polygonal piers with stepped caps, the bases now much below present floor level. Simple tower arch. Octagonal C15 font with quatrefoil panels, C19 cover. Medieval chest under tower. Bell dated 1770. Two good late C18 wall monuments. Remainder of fittings 1874 including pine pews, pulpit, and altar rails. (Illustrated Braikenridge Collection, Taunton Castle; Pevsner, N. Buildings of England, South and West Somerset, 1958; Church Guide, 1975).

Listing NGR: ST3680738296