Parish Church Of St Mary

Parish Church of St Mary

This is a parish church of early 13th-century origin, substantially rebuilt in the 14th century with the nave reconstructed around 1420–30. The building was restored in 1848–57 and again in 1878, principally in 1849 under W H Brakspear when the nave and aisle roofs were replaced. Further work to the tower and spire, including repointing, restoration and the addition of buttresses, took place in 1887–8.

The church is constructed of red Wembdon sandstone rubble, blue lias limestone and Ham Hill stone, with double-Roman tile roof. It follows a complex cruciform plan comprising a sanctuary of two and a half bays, a choir of two bays with north and south chapels, an aisled and clerestoreyed nave of five bays with transepts linked to porches, and a low west tower topped with a tall spire.

The two-bay gabled chancel is built of red sandstone with some limestone, moulded coping and kneelers. The transomed five-light east window features panel tracery, whilst the returns, with parapets of pierced quatrefoils, have three-light windows with Perpendicular tracery. A red sandstone vestry dated 1902 stands to the north of the chancel. The rest of the north walls are of lias limestone.

The gabled north transept, with a parapet of pierced trefoils, comprises two bays with 13th-century set-off clasping buttresses and two 13th-century blocked pointed-arched openings in the bottom of the east wall. A large late 19th-century Decorated-style north window of five lights features tracery of four quatrefoils enclosed in a circle at the top. Below are steps down to a small door to the crypt set in a single-chamfered pointed architrave. Flanking this door are two recesses, each with seven cusps, over eroded horizontal figures possibly dating to around 1300. The north wall has a similar parapet to the chancel, slightly gabled over an early 13th-century door which, if in situ, indicates that the church was aisled at that time. This door has a traceried tympanum and bishop's head capitals to the colonnettes. An oculus above with six-point star tracery is flanked by niches with crocketed gables supported by colonnettes. A five-light window to the left has elaborate reticulated tracery. A castellated chapel to the north-west has three-light windows with Perpendicular tracery. The angles to this chapel and the west tower have substantial diagonal set-off buttresses.

The 14th-century tower, attributed to Nicholas Waleys, is built of red sandstone with a string course below a Ham Hill stone ashlar castellated parapet. The two stages are marked by a simple string course. The left return (north) has two small pointed windows, whilst the west end has a label mould with foliate stops and spandrels to a pointed-arched studded door with full-width integral strap hinges. Above it is a pointed arch of alternate red and stone with a hoodmould with head stops to a two-light window with a trefoil head to each light and a quatrefoil between. The bell-openings are two-light with Somerset tracery. A stone plaque reads "IMI R 1697". To the south side a castellated square stair turret rises above the parapet of the tower; it has six slit windows with Ham Hill stone dressings and a downpipe hopper head dated 1887. The tall, slender, unadorned octagonal spire is of Ham Hill stone ashlar.

The reticulated tracery of the window in the south aisle is 19th-century. The west end of the south aisle has a parapet of pierced trefoils, whilst those to the 19th-century clerestory of the nave, south transept and eastern end are pierced with quatrefoils. The south-west chapel is two bays with five-light windows featuring reticulated tracery. The bay containing the south door, stepped slightly forward, has set-off angle buttresses below an oculus with double-cusped tracery; to its right is a four-light window with reticulated tracery. The shallow-gabled south transept is a single bay with panel tracery to all three windows: five-light to the south and four-light to the returns. The south aisle and the chancel are each two bays with similar three-light windows, all below a pierced quatrefoil parapet. The string course below the parapets has bosses at approximately one-metre intervals and gargoyles above to the buttresses. The building is encircled by a plinth, double to the south-west corner, with Ham Hill stone capping.

Interior

The interior features a fine 19th-century polychromatic tiled floor in the porches, aisles, choir and nave. The three-bay chancel has a 15th-century panelled slightly pointed barrel-vaulted ceiling with moulded braces. Every fourth brace is richly pierced and cusped and rests on an angel with outstretched wings; the faceted corbel of which has a foliate pendant. Carved bosses to the panelling date to 1385–1416. Three-light windows flank each side. A piscina with 20th-century added wooden doors is flanked on the left by the remains of original stalls now used as a sedilia. Below the central window is a stilted Tudor arch with foliate stops to a pointed-arched door. A 17th-century communion table and moulded altar rail with barley-sugar twist balusters are complemented by 19th-century marble steps to the choir, which has the town crest and medieval motifs incorporated in the floor tiles. 13th-century massive polygonal arches stand to the east of the crossing.

The six-bay nave is separated from the aisles by an arcade supported by columns of four-hollow-section with small circular capitals to the shafts. The roof is 19th-century. The upper storeys of the porches, which do not project on the outside, form balconies facing the interior. The north balcony has wide semicircular arches with a central mullion flanked by cinquefoil-headed arches and a pierced trefoil between, one facing the nave and two facing the north transept. The south balcony has one cusped ogee arch facing the nave and one facing the south transept. Both balconies have pierced stone balustrades. The ceilings of the aisles are panelled: 17th-century to the north aisle and 19th-century to the south. Aisle walls contain tomb recesses; those to the north have cusped arches similar to those over the south porch which have large spherical bosses, whilst those to the south are 19th-century.

Notable furnishings include 15th-century screens in the north and south chapels with one-light sections. In the south transept a 17th-century former rood screen features a dado with rusticated columns and two tiers of arches between, with sixteen one-light divisions with thin ornamented columns, strapwork and obelisks on top. 17th-century stalls, built for members of the Corporation, were moved to their present position in the early 1850s. An 18th-century sounding board surmounts an early 16th-century octagonal oak pulpit with pointed and ogee-arched panels articulated by panelled pilasters with crocketed finials; the stone base is corbelled out to support it. On the east wall of the chancel is a painting of "The Descent from the Cross", attributed to Murillo and given to the church in the 18th century by Mr Pawlet of Hinton St George.

Monuments include a large marble monument to Francis Kingsmill (died 1621), depicting him semi-reclining on his elbow with his two sons in recesses kneeling behind him, both facing east (the sons died in 1640). A monument by Reeves of Bath commemorates John Dunning (died 1821). A 1640 tomb stands to the left of the chancel. A 1769 window to the right of the chancel commemorates Joseph --- and Bonjohn, whilst an 1880 window to the left commemorates the Pawlet family of Dampiet House. Above the west door are richly carved and gilded arms dated 1712 with the motto SEMPER EADEM to the lower scroll. High in the north porch is a fine marble plaque of an egg on a plinth, dated 1795.