Church of St Theodore

Church of St Theodore

This is an Early English-style church with a nave, north and south aisles, porches, transepts, sanctus bellcote, chancel, south lady chapel, and north vestry. The nave and chancel are lofty with tall lancet windows. The west bay of the nave was intended to be raised as a tower, but this was never undertaken and the bay was roofed over instead. The church is constructed of local blue-grey snecked sandstone with Bath stone dressings under tile roofs. Architectural details include angle and set-back buttresses with offsets and gablets, moulded plinth and sill bands, continuous hoodmoulds, and a decorated eaves cornice.

The west end has three stepped lancets under a relieving arch, set between angle buttresses, with two vent slits to the gable apex. The south side of the proposed tower has no openings. The south side of the nave has clerestorey windows above a full-length lean-to aisle. An advanced gabled porch, offset to the left, has angle buttresses with gablets. At the same level is a corbelled band, above which is a large rose window. The pointed arched entrance has three orders of chamfered mouldings on three attached shafts with rings, and steel gates. Pairs of windows flank each side—two lancets with a circle above. The porch has a quadripartite vaulted roof with chamfered ribs and low side benches. Its pointed arched doorway has keeled moulding on attached shafts with ringed dentilled capitals. Double doors are set back, with iron strapwork. The aisle has a pronounced south-west angle buttress and a single lancet to the west end. To the right of the porch are three wide lancets separated by angle buttresses. The clerestorey has pairs of tall lancets separated by buttresses. The south transept has set-back buttresses flanking a tall pointed arched window with plate tracery—four lancets with a rose above—and a short lancet to the gable apex. The east side of the transept has a high-level two-lancet window.

An apsidal-ended lady chapel partly obscures the south side of the chancel, which has lancet windows at high level. The lady chapel has five windows to the south and east, each separated by a buttress. These are plate tracery windows with two lancets and a circle. A dressed stone sanctus bellcote rises above the crossing—square in section with a spirelet, angle pilasters, and pinnacles. It has two flat-headed openings to each side with decorative friezes above and below. The east end of the chancel has three tall stepped lancets in heavy mouldings flanked by massive angle buttresses, with a smaller buttress centrally placed below the sill. The window is under a high pointed relieving arch, immediately beneath which are two ornate blind quatrefoils. A pair of vents sits in the gable apex.

To the north, the vestry is in two parts: a tall two-storey gabled bay to the right and a single-storey lean-to to the left. Plate tracery windows have two lancets and a quatrefoil. The window to the east end of the lean-to has an added transom and a narrow light offset above. The north side has a window with a pointed arched doorway to the right with several orders of mouldings. Above the lean-to, the chancel has a single lancet to the left and a pair of lancets to the right. A stack rises from the angle of the chancel and the two-storey bay of the vestry. The face of the latter is set back from the north transept and has a large angle buttress to the left, with two plate tracery windows to the ground floor and a tall narrow lancet to the upper level.

The north transept has large set-back buttresses without gablets and two tall lancets between which is an angle buttress. Above are a cusped light and three stepped louvres in the gable apex. The north aisle and clerestorey match the south side. The advanced gabled porch, offset to the right, is lower than the south porch. Its pointed arched entrance has two orders of chamfered mouldings on two attached shafts with rings. Above is a statue niche with a trefoiled head on shafts and foliate moulding above, containing a statue of St Theodore. Each side of the porch has two quatrefoils within heavy mouldings. Inside the porch is a pointed arched doorway with single shafts, containing double boarded doors, a quadripartite vaulted roof, and side benches. The north side of the proposed tower chamber has a tiny stairlight to the right angle buttress.

The interior is a fine Early English-style design faced in dressed Bath stone. The tower chamber at the west end has a vaulted roof, with four moulded ribs joining a circle at the apex. A door to the far west of the north side has a pointed arched head. A tall pointed tower arch has four orders of mouldings on four attached round shafts with ringed capitals and bases. The nave has four-bay arcades with double chamfered pointed arches on compound columns with ringed capitals and bases. The third arches from the west end have the most ornate columns, with clustered shafts of different sizes, some filleted. A string course above each arcade supports attached shafts that rise above the spandrels of the arches. These have ringed corbels and bases, squared capitals, and neck rings which continue as hoodmoulds over the clerestorey windows. The clerestorey openings have roll mouldings which continue down to the string course, but below the windows to each side is a blind triforium with round arches, the blockings pierced by quatrefoils. The nave has a six-bay tie beam roof with collars supported by arched braces, cusped struts above the collar, and windbraces. The east two bays, above the crossing, are shorter. The floor is quarry tile.

The aisle windows have splayed reveals and sills. A sill band supports short attached shafts which support the ribs of the quadripartite vaulted roof. The transverse ribs are chamfered, the narrower diagonal ribs have keeled mouldings. The transept arches are similar to the tower arch with three orders of mouldings. The chancel arch also has three orders but is more ornate—the outer order has keel mouldings and dog-tooth enrichment, while the outer attached shafts are of dark grey Purbeck marble. The chancel has a three-bay quadripartite vaulted roof, the ribs enriched with dog-tooth and supported on Purbeck marble shafts which rise from the string course above two-bay arcades. These are highly enriched with dentils and dog-tooth mouldings. The south arcade has compound columns, with attached shafts of alternating stone and marble. Two-arch inner arcadings have quatrefoils above the spandrels decorated with flower bosses. Above the arcades are pairs of clerestorey windows, with a single window further east. The jambs have attached shafts and decorated mouldings, with quatrefoils above the spandrels. A blind triforium beneath consists of two pointed arches on marble columns with dog-tooth enrichment. The similar north arcade has the right arch blind and the left arch containing the organ. Responds of the three stepped lancets at the east end are of three clustered shafts supporting moulded rear arches with dog-tooth enrichment. The outer jambs have two shafts of Purbeck marble.

The south chapel has a three-bay quadripartite vaulted roof with additional ribs to the apsidal east end. As in the aisles, the ribs are supported on short attached shafts which rise from the sill band. Dog-tooth enrichment and dentils are throughout. The floor is encaustic tile.

Fittings include a pale marble font to the south-west of the nave by Robert Davison—a round bowl in a square surround decorated with blind trefoiled lancets supported on four grey marble shafts with ringed capitals and bases. An octagonal pulpit of Portland stone has Purbeck marble columns to each angle. Each face has an openwork arch of two lights with a quatrefoil above and high relief foliate decoration. The narrower base has stylised blind trefoils. A low stone screen in front of the chancel has chamfered coping, between which are highly ornate wrought iron gates with scrollwork and tall finials. A similar iron screen divides the arcade between chancel and chapel. To their east are three-seat sedilia with moulded pointed arches supported on Purbeck marble columns under high gablets. Choir stalls have blind trefoiled arches to the front.

The stained glass includes the east windows of the chapel which bear angels by Clayton & Bell, given in 1902 and 1904 by Major Thomas Gray and Emily Talbot respectively. To its right is a memorial to Lieutenant Rupert Price Hallowes VC who died in the Great War in 1915, by Powell's, depicting the archangels Michael and Gabriel. Two further windows in the chapel to the Cound family, depicting heavenly gifts, are by L C Evetts, 1970s. The south aisle has three stained glass windows, memorials to the David family, by Clayton & Bell (that to the left undergoing restoration). The west windows of the aisles, to Olivia and William George (died 1971 and 1978), are by L C Evetts and depict the Virgin as Queen of Heaven and St Theodore. To the north aisle are three windows by Powell's, 1950s, including acts of healing. The east window lancets depict Christ between St Theodore and St David, by Timothy Lewis of the Swansea School of Art, 1983.