Church Of The Blessed Virgin Mary

Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary

An Anglican parish church of local and national importance. The building has 12th-century origins but was mostly rebuilt during the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. It was restored by Benjamin Ferrey in 1872-73.

The church is constructed in local lias stone, cut and squared, with Ham stone dressings. The roof is of Welsh slate between stepped coped gables to the chancel; the rest is covered in sheet lead behind parapets. The church has a four-cell plan with additions: a three-bay chancel, four-bay nave, single-bay north transept, two-bay south chapel, plus a south porch, north vestry, and a western tower.

The chancel dates from the 14th century but has been much restored. It has angled corner and bay buttresses, and on the east wall a three-light traceried window under an arched label with square stops. The south side contains a three-light and a two-light flat-headed window, the former traceried; between them is a plain chamfered pointed arched doorway without a label. The north wall has a three-light ogee-traceried flat-headed window with a headstop label, a projection to house the organ, and a 19th-century two-light window to match.

The north transept also dates from the 14th century. It has a plinth and no buttresses. The three-light north window is a rural curvilinear traceried example with an arched headstop label. The east and west walls have 15th-century traceried windows in hollow arched recesses, set under square-stopped arched labels.

The nave contains 13th-century fragments but is mostly 14th and 15th century in character. It has bay buttresses. The north wall contains two three-light 15th-century windows with arched, square-stopped labels. Projecting between them is a 19th-century vestry with a two-light rectangular mullioned and transomed window with cusped toplights. The south wall has one window matching those in the north.

The south chapel is entirely 15th century. It has angled corner and bay buttresses, a string course, and battlemented parapets. Three four-light windows are present: the east and first south are sub-arcuated traceried examples set in hollowed recesses, dated around 1490, while the third is later in style and set under a segmental pointed arch.

The south porch adjoins the chapel and probably dates from the 14th century. It has a plain chamfered arch to the outside under a flat plain parapet. Inside, the west wall contains an arched recess to hold the parish bier, while the east wall has a trefoiled niche. The inner wall features an elaborate 12th-century doorway heavily discoloured by fire, with a double-order chevroned semi-circular arch under a dog-tooth label, a plain tympanum with some diaper work, and a lower portion with triangular voussoired arches. The outer shafts are chevron-decorated, the middle shafts are plain, and the tympanum shafts have twist moulds with bases and carved capitals. The door itself is probably 14th century. The porch was originally two storeys; the stair remains.

The tower is among the finest in Somerset, dating to around 1500. It has four stages with pairs of corner buttresses with offsets, each stage ending in pinnacles. Deep moulded string courses feature quatrefoil panel bands, the lowest containing grotesques. The crown is elaborately open-traceried with composite corner and single central pinnacles. A north-east octagonal stair turret rises to full height. The west door has a moulded pointed arch set in a rectangular recess with floriated spandrels, side diagonal shafts with pinnacles, and a quatrefoil panel over; stage one is otherwise plain. Stage two has a four-light sub-arcuated west window with a transom set in a deep recess, with a single canopied recess on the north and two on the south. Stage three has three-light traceried windows with transomes and ornate pierced stone baffles, flanked by narrow canopied recesses (window only to the north). Stage four has pairs of two-light transomed windows with flanking pinnacled shafts.

Inside, the chancel is mostly of 19th-century character. The chancel arch is wide and almost triangular, probably dating to the 15th century. The nave has a rib and panel wagon ceiling with 19th-century colouring; the arches match the chancel arch and are presumably 14th century. The south chapel has a late 15th-century moulded rib and panel ceiling. In the west wall is a small 14th-century roundel with a quatrefoil and a small figure of Christ. A tall panelled tower arch is filled with a fine 15th-century timber screen removed from Enmore in 1873.

The church contains several notable fittings: an elaborately panelled pulpit dated 1625 on a 19th-century stone base; a 17th-century altar table in the south chapel; an octagonal font on a panelled coved shaft with quatrefoil panels. Stained glass in the east window of the south chapel was created by Burne-Jones and Morris in 1899.

The church is first mentioned in 1179 and was dedicated, possibly after a fire, in 1232.