Church Of St Aldhelm And St Eadburgha

Church of St Aldhelm and St Eadburgha

An Anglican parish church with 13th-century chancel and transepts, a 15th-century nave, porch, and tower, substantially reseated and with the chancel refitted in the 19th century. The building is constructed of random rubble chert stone with squared and coursed Ham stone to the tower and Ham stone dressings throughout, with slate roofs and coped verges.

The west tower is a prominent feature with a north-east stair turret. It rises in three stages, with crenellations and crocketed finials at the corners, gargoyles and a string course, and diagonal buttresses. The bell openings are 2-light with trefoil heads and louvres. A trefoil-headed 2-light window with continuous hoodmould lights the stair turret, while a 3-light west window rests on the hoodmould of a 19th-century west door. The south front of the nave has a 3-light window. A gabled single-storey porch with a south-west diagonal buttress abuts the south transept, with a boot scraper inset into the wall. The porch has a moulded Perpendicular doorway with an interior render grooved as ashlar and a ribbed barrel vault roof. The inner doorway is pointed with an old studded door carved with graffiti, probably 17th-century work.

The south transept is diagonally buttressed and has a 2-light south window with a scratch dial said to be inset below, though not visible at the time of survey in November 1985. A 3-light window on the east front, renewed in the 19th century, a 19th-century priest's door, and a 2-light window complete the fenestration. The diagonally buttressed chancel has two windows: a 2-light window and three lancets forming the east window. A chimney projects from the east gable end of the vestry. The north front has a lancet and doorway, while the north transept displays a 3-light cinquefoil-headed window on its east front with setback buttresses, and 3-light uncusped windows on the north and west elevations. The nave also has a 3-light window.

The interior is rendered except for the south transept chapel, which is squared and coursed Ham stone. There is no chancel arch. A pointed tower arch gives access to the north transept, and a pointed arch with Perpendicular moulding opens to the south transept. The chancel has a ribbed and cusped wagon roof with floral bosses and brattished wallplate. The south transept has a ribbed wagon roof, while the north transept's similar roof has a brattished wallplate and is set at a higher level than the nave. The nave has a wagon roof with brattished wallplate but no bosses. Depressed Tudor arch head openings with incised spandrels between the chancel and south transept form hagioscopes. Three stone steps remain above from a former stair. Scalloped rear-arches survive to the east window of the south transept and north window of the north transept. A double roll-moulded arched doorway provides access to the stair turret.

The furnishings include choir stalls with carved fronts presented in 1927, an altar front and panelling dated around 1925, and a piece of tombstone set into the cill of the south chancel window with the date 1717 visible. A Ham stone table with moulded surround commemorates Sara, wife of John Forde, Vicar, who died in 1621, with an inscription in Latin with good lettering. Notable memorials include a wall tablet in grey and white marble to William Fewtrell (died 1777), with obelisk and urn; a convex-centred white marble on grey slate tablet to John Fewtrell (died 1819); and a Greek Revival design tablet in similar materials to Freeman Smith (died 1801). A fine Perpendicular octagonal font has each face divided into three trefoil-headed bays containing a central figure flanked by shields, with a 20th-century base. A brass lectern stands nearby. The pulpit, carved stained and coloured oak with the Five Wounds of Our Lord, was restored in 1900 when the plaster coating was removed and traces of colour discovered. Fragments of medieval glass remain in the upper lights of the east window in the north transept. The remaining windows are of later date: nave windows dated 1934 and 1933, an east window dated 1923 and signed by J Wippell and Co of Exeter, a south window in the south transept dated 1903, and a west window of 1863. Two panels of tin painted with the Ten Commandments and the Creed are set against the tower wall.

The bells were rehung in 1931. Of the five bells, one dates to 1583, two are from 1672, one was cast in 1748 by Thomas Bayley of Bridgwater, and one dates to 1798 by George Davis of Bridgwater.

The church is dedicated to St Aldhelm, a rare dedication to the Saxon saint who was Bishop of Sherborne and died at Doulting in 709, and also to St Eadburgha, an abbess and granddaughter of King Alfred. The church's isolation from the village of Broadway, situated approximately half a mile to the south-west, is attributed to a 17th-century plague.