Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

Parish church on the south side of High Street. The building dates from the late 13th and early 14th centuries in its lower tower stages and west bay of the south aisle, with the remainder constructed in the 15th century. It was restored between 1873 and 1875 by J D Sedding.

The church is built of red sandstone random rubble, squared and coursed on the north face of the tower, with Ham stone dressings and slate roofs with coped verges. It comprises a chancel, a five-bay nave, a seven-bay north aisle, a three-bay south chapel, a southwest tower, and north and south porches.

The three-stage crenellated tower features diagonal stepped buttresses, gargoyles, and quoins on its north face. A square stair turret stands on the west front at the junction with the nave. The bell openings consist of two-light mullioned and transomed windows, with a lancet and two-light south window. A single-storey crenellated south porch stands to the right, with a moulded plinth, diagonal stepped buttresses rising to a string course, and grotesque oversized gargoyles. The porch has a moulded arched opening and a four-panel moulded compartment ceiling, with a chamfered inner doorway fitted with a Victorian door. To the right stands a three-light cinquefoil-headed mullioned window and a projecting organ bay with a 16th-century three-light window. The south chapel is crenellated with three-light windows in the outer bays, the centre bay being blocked, and a depressed Tudor arched doorway in the left bay with stepped buttresses between. The north aisle is crenellated with quatrefoil-decorated merlons, gargoyles and pinnacles, and a deeply moulded plinth. The north front displays two-light and three-light windows, with a crenellated roodstair turret in the centre. A two-storey gabled north porch with finial and kneelers features setback stepped buttresses rising to a string course and a moulded arched opening; its upper floor has been removed and replaced with 20th-century roof timbers, with a Tudor arched opening and a 19th-century door. The nave has a four-light west window. A blocked east window serves the chapel.

Windows include a 19th-century three-light chancel window and 19th-century three-light windows in the north aisle, all with stepped buttresses between.

Interior

The interior is rendered. The west bay of the south aisle has an octagonal pier with respond and pointed arch, while the rest of the church displays standard Perpendicular arcades. Capitals in the north aisle are decorated with foliage, including a green man and instruments of the passion. Two hagioscopes are present. The tower arches are triple-chamfered on the north face and double-chamfered on the east face. An irregularly shaped moulded arch separates the south aisle from the chapel.

The chancel has a 19th-century arch-braced roof with stencilled decoration executed by Edward Jones, the incumbent from 1871 to 1907. Other areas have moulded ribbed open barrel vaults, partially renewed, with the south aisle roof also dating to the 19th century. Edward Jones also executed painted decoration in the chancel. The chancel contains a Victorian reredos, tiled floor, and tiled dado, the latter now obscured by paint.

An arched roodloft door in the north aisle has a square-headed loft opening above it. A medieval door with trefoil-headed ribbed decoration and fine medieval metalwork survives. A moulded Tudor arched tomb recess contains a small brass to Margery Windham, who died in 1585.

The south chapel contains an impressive two-bay canopy tomb with paired Corinthian columns, strapwork decoration, and other Mannerist detailing to Sir George Sydenham, who died in 1597. The tomb displays effigies of Sir George, his two wives, and three babies rising at their feet. Other notable memorials in the south chapel include a slate tablet to George Musgrave (died 1721), a marble wall tablet to another George Musgrave (died 1741), optimistically attributed to Rysbrack, a mid-19th-century Gothic tablet by J Pearse of Minehead, and a memorial in the nave to Thomas Rich (died 1727) with touring putti. Some 16th-century bench ends remain. A mid-18th-century brass candelabra by Thomas Bayley of Minehead is present. Three roundels of late 15th to early 16th-century Flemish glass survive in a south aisle window.