Church Of St Mary Magdalene

The Church of St Mary Magdalene is a parish church built in 1865, located in Stockland Bristol village. It was constructed on the site of an earlier church for the Daniel family of Stockland Manor and designed by Arthur of Plymouth. The church features coursed and squared blue lias rubble with Bath Stone dressings, tile roofs with bracketed eaves, and copings topped with cruciform finials.

Architecturally, it is designed in the Decorated style with significant buttressing. The layout includes a nave with a north aisle and a south porch, a west tower, a chancel with a heated north vestry, and a south chapel. The three-stage tower has diagonal buttresses on the first and second stages, a parapet with quatrefoil openings, a stair turret, and 2-light bell chamber openings with louvers. The west elevation includes a 3-light window, a west door with carved head stops, and a three-bay nave with 2-light windows. The chancel has a single bay with a 2-light window and a lancet, along with a 3-light window in the south chapel.

Inside, the church has plain plastered walls and tile floors. The nave and chancel feature wagon roofs, with the nave's roof left unceiled, while the north aisle has a scissor-braced roof. An arcade supported by octagonal piers separates the nave from the aisle. The octagonal font and the chancel screen are 15th-century pieces reused from the earlier church, with the screen restored and installed by F Bligh Bond around 1920 as a memorial to those who fell in the Great War. The remaining fittings are from 1865, including a notable stone pulpit with ten detached Purbeck shafts and a similarly styled reredos. The church contains much 19th-century stained glass, with the chancel glass made by Clayton and Bell. There are also two relocated 17th-century tablets in the south chapel and two 19th-century tablets. The bells date from 1865. The church is a well-balanced and precise example of a Decorated building, with Thomas Daniel serving as the rector.