Church of The Holy Cross

Church of The Holy Cross

This is an Anglican parish church of 13th-century origin, substantially refurbished in the 15th century and extensively reitted in the 19th century. It stands in Weston Bampfylde, Sparkford parish.

The church is constructed of local grey lias stone, cut and squared, with Ham stone dressings. The roof is covered in stone slates and rises between stepped coped gables with gabletted cross finials. The building follows a two-cell plan comprising a two-bay chancel and three-bay nave, with a north-west corner vestry, south porch, and west tower.

The chancel features a chamfered plinth and eaves course with angled corner buttresses. The east window is a three-light example with 15th-century tracery, pointed arch, and square stopped label. The north wall contains a matching two-light window. A projecting 19th-century vestry extends from the north side, with a gabled north wall and matching two-light window; its west wall has a shouldered arched doorway and a pair of small cusped lancet windows in the east wall. The south wall of the chancel contains two two-light windows. Between them is a blocked four-centre arched doorway with chamfered surround, inscribed on the lintel with "Domus mea, Domus Orationis" in 16th-century script. Two fielded panels set in this doorway and beneath the adjacent window possibly formed part of a chest tomb.

The nave has a chamfered plinth, eaves course, and bay buttresses. The north wall contains a cusped flat-headed window without label and a blocked 15th-century doorway with square stopped, four-centre arched label. The south wall contains two three-light windows with 15th-century tracery, pointed arches, and square stopped labels. Between them stands the south porch, which is gabled with side buttresses and a segmental pointed outer arch, and has a single cusped lancet window on each side. The inner doorway is a plain four-centre arch with moulded runouts.

The south porch is gabled with side buttresses and a segmental pointed outer arch. Each side wall contains a single cusped lancet window. The inner doorway is a plain four-centre arch with moulded runouts.

The west tower is probably 13th-century at its base and is square and squat in form. It rises in four stages with stepped broaches to the base of the third stage, where the tower becomes octagonal. A plinth and string courses run around the tower, and the top is finished with a battlemented parapet and small metal weathervane. The lowest stage has a single small lancet window in the west face. Above this, in the second stage, is an ogee arched recess containing a cross inserted to commemorate the Coronation of George V in 1911. The top stage has small two-light, four-centred arched windows on each cardinal face, set under square labels and fitted with timber baffles. Water spouts project from the north and south faces.

The interior was largely remodelled and stripped of plaster in the 19th century. Both the chancel and nave feature vaulted ceilings of timber boarded panels with moulded ribs and bosses in the chancel. All windows have rere-arches. The chancel arch is a double chamfer with single depressed bell-capitals and unusual base details. Squints open from both sides of the chancel arch. The nave is plain, with a very low pointed arch into the tower. The north wall retains remains of steps to the former rood loft and a recess for a former doorway.

The chancel furniture dates probably to the early 20th century, while the screen is late 19th-century. The pulpit is an early 17th-century timber example with carved panels, mounted on a later base. One pew has a pair of very decorative traceried bench ends. The font in the tower has a round bowl with cable-mould to its base, set on a simple octagonal stand and possibly dating to the 12th century.

Memorials include a white marble cartouche on the south wall of the nave commemorating Grace Lydford, died 1726.

Mounted on the south wall of the tower are three bell clappers of approximately 1450, removed when the bells were rehung in 1914.

The first known rector is recorded prior to 1309.