The Church Of Saint James

ST52SE CHILTON CANTELO CP

4/7 The Church of Saint James 19.4.61

BV II*

Church. C15 tower and earlier fragments, restored 1864-65 by Sir Arthur Blomfield. Local stone cut and squared, with Ham stone dressings and bands; plain clay tile roofs with bands of fish scale and other ornamental tiles, ornamented terra cotta ridges; coped gables with cross finials to nave and chancel. Cruciform plan with 3-bay chancel, 3-bay nave and added South porch and West tower. Tower has offset corner buttresses; plinth, 3-stages defined by string courses with double string framing Quatrefoil panels to head of second stage; crenellation and pinnacles to both buttresses and parapet; stair tower in North end corner surmounted by C18 weathercock and vane. Small West doorway with moulded jambs and 4-centred head under square label, foliated spandrils; immediately above 3-former statue niches, then late C15 subarcuated 4-light traceried window with arcaded transome; to stage 2 two small 2-light windows of the same date, one each on North and South sides, each with pierced stone baffles; to stage 3 a three-light simple ogee alternate tracery windows including arcaded transome to all 4-sides, again with pierced stone baffles; gargoyles above to centres and corners of each face. Five bells, the earliest being C17. The remainder of the church of unremarkable C19 work, save for the windows of the North transept, which were apparently kept from the earlier church: some good fittings survive inside, including three early piscinae, a fine two seat stone sedelia of possibly C15, an early C12 font with plain bowl and shaft and simple scalloped base complete with early lead lining, and a probably C15 stone screen, now set West of the double panel coffered tower arch. The C19 timber chancel screen is delicate and well executed. Basically a Norman Church, it was reconstructed in a Gothic style during the incumbency the Revd. Charles Old Goodford, D.D. (1848-84), who was also Provost of Eton from 1862-84, as well as being the Squire of the Manor of Chilton Cantelo from 1863. (Francis Goulding, Ashington, Chilton Cantelo, Mudford - the Story of Three Somerset Parishes, 1982).

Listing NGR: ST5702522179