Church Of The Holy Cross

MIDDLEZOY CP CHURCH ROAD (East side) ST33SE 5/28 Church of the Holy Cross 29.3.63 GV I

Anglican parish church. C13, C14, C15, C16, restored C19. Coursed and squared rubble, freestone dressings, slate and lead-sheeting roofs, coped verges, finials. Nave with south aisle and a south porch, north transept, chancel, west tower. Geometrical, Decorated, and Perpendicular styles. Lofty 3-stage tower of Quantock type; set-back buttresses connected diagonally across the angle, buttresses terminate in tall diagonally-set shafts on the top stage, pinnacles set diagonally at the corners; topping polygonal stair-turret to north; west doorway, 4-light west window with fine tracery; on stage above 2-light windows with Somerset tracery, flanking canopied niches; on bell-chamber stage twin 2-light openings, Somerset tracery, flanked by thin shafts with pinnacles. Nave with 3-light Perpendicular windows to north. Aisle of 5 bays; on south side 2-light windows with plate tracery, a small lancet, and a 3-light Perpendicular window with square head; to west end 3-light Perpendicular window; to east end 3-light window with reticulated tracery of c1330; buttresses; on south wall a lead plaque dated 1752. Gabled porch with broad outer door opening, benched inside on a flagstone floor, small double-chamfered inner doorway with trefoil niche over. Single bay north transept, low-pitched gable, parapet with coping, 3-light windows. Two bay chancel, 2-light windows, renewed tracery of c1300, 2 lancet lights with trefoils above them and a quatrefoil under the main arch, conforming 3-light east window with septfoil under main arch; evidence of former rood-turret to north, ribbed and studded priest's door to south, moulded surround, label with carved head stops. Plastered interior on flagstone floors. Arcade to aisle of 5 bays, piers of 4-hollows section, arch to north transept in similar style. Panelled Perpendicular tower arch, angel busts, incomplete fan-vault. Nave with ceiled C17 wagon roof, moulded cornice, ornamental bosses, pendants over former rood. Aisle windows with small internal shafts. Chancel windows with rere-arches. Corbel heads to aisle roof. Two good piscinae. Octagonal Perpendicular font with Jacobean tester. Good miserere to chancel. C16 rood screen, tall, panels of 4-lights with a middle mullion reaching to the apex of the arch, coving missing. Jacobean tower screen with upper section of balusters. C17 altar. Two C17 chests; pulpit, wooden with blank arches in two tiers. Some late medieval carved bench ends, some poppy finials. C18/C19 wall monuments. Stained glass figure of St Dorothy to south aisle lancet, C16; some C19 stained glass. (Pevsner, N. Buildings of England, South and West Somerset, 1958; Photographs in NMR).

Listing NGR: ST3747333103