Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This parish church originates from the 13th century, with major rebuilding in the 15th century when the nave was reconstructed and porches added. The bell-tower was extant by 1405. In 1812, the chancel was rebuilt except for its south wall, and the roof and upper walls of the nave were renewed; a vestry was also added at this time. The church underwent restoration and refitting in the 19th century. In 1932, the south porch roof was restored to the design of Herbert Read. In 1963, the south porch was converted to a chapel, and the north porch was closed, with entry relocated to the west door of the tower. The tower was undergoing restoration at the time of the survey in October 1985.

The building is constructed of random rubble chert stone, with the west face of the tower featuring squared and coursed chert banded with dressed limestone. Ham stone provides the dressings. The roofs are slate, with plain clay tile to the chancel and coped verges. The plan consists of a west tower with a north-east stair turret, a 3-bay aisless nave, north and south porches (now blocked), a north-east vestry, and a chancel. Entry is via the west tower.

The tower is a crenellated 3-stage structure with setback buttresses rising almost to the parapet. It features 2-light louvred bell-openings and a continuous hoodmould to a 3-light window at the best level, which rests on Ham stone and pierces a quatrefoil decorative string. The Tudor arch-headed doorway has a 19th-century door. On the north face below the bell-opening is a 2-light trefoil-headed window with quatrefoil pierced panels (one missing at the time of survey). A polygonal stair turret rises above the tower.

On the south front of the nave is a 4-light Tudor arch-headed mullioned window to the left of a single-storey gabled porch flanked by stepped buttresses to the nave wall. A moulded arch-headed blocked doorway opening has an inserted 3-light window; to its right is a 3-light cinquefoil-headed mullioned window with a stepped buttress to the nave. The chancel features a 2-light window and lancet on its unbuttressed south face and a 3-light east window. A lancet appears on the north face. The vestry has a lancet on its east face and a 2-light window on the north face with a chimney in the gable end; a door opens on the west front.

A small rood stair light with a 4-centred arch head appears on the nave's north face. A 3-light cinquefoil-headed mullioned window is located to the left of the former north porch, flanked by stepped buttresses against the nave wall; the hoodmould of the original entrance remains. An inserted 20th-century 2-light window appears to the nave's right, with the nave unlit beyond this point. Handsome cast-iron rainwater pipes date to circa 1812.

The interior is rendered. Remains of colour survive on the jambs of the north-east nave window. A 19th-century Perpendicular-style chancel arch with a low wall and 4 steps down to the nave features hollow wave moulding. The former south doorway to the nave has chamfered columns and a mutilated inmost with a Norman arch; a 19th-century arch marks the former north entrance. An unexplained infill with a pointed top occurs at the junction of the north wall with the stair turret. A chamfered Tudor arch-headed stair turret doorway is also present.

The roofs are 19th-century work: the chancel has a very shallow wagon roof, ribbed and boarded over the sanctuary with a moulded Ham stone wallplate. The nave has a shallow ribbed wagon roof. The south porch features a wagon roof ribbed with wallplate and carved bosses, restored in 1932. A west gallery in the tower is carried on cast iron columns with decorative capitals and has a 19th-century wooden balustrade. Some 15th-century roof ends are reset.

The pulpit is composed of linen fold panelling of uncertain age. An octagonal 13th-century font has a 17th-century flat ribbed cover. Painted Latin inscriptions on pieces of wood in the chancel are thought to be captions to medieval wall paintings of the Passion, now vanished. A Royal Coat of Arms of Queen Anne, dated 1703 and subsequently repainted, is displayed. A collection of 19th-century memorial tablets of members of the Beviss family in white marble and slate includes two signed by Stephens of Exeter and one by Fentiman of Taunton. Decorative 19th-century leading appears in all windows, with some medieval glass in the north wall of the chancel. A wooden bier with rubber wheels stands in the tower.

The five bells comprise: (i) and (ii) cast in 1892 by John Warner and Sons of London, recast from the 15th-century tenor bell; (iii) and (iv) from the early 14th-century Bristol foundry; and (v) early 16th-century, made by Thomas Jeffries of Bristol.

The church is documented as a chapel dating to 1215–20. In the 1560s the roof was thatched and shingled but had been leaded by 1613. Proposals for a rebuilding of the fabric in 1860 were not executed.