Details
ST03SE BROMPTON RALPH CP
BROMPTON RAPH VILLAGE
6/4 Church of St Mary
22.5.69
GV II*
Parish church. C15 tower and south door, nave refenestrated and vestry added C16, church said to be largely rebuilt
l738, tower restored 1797 and 1804, north aisle added 1847, chancel rebuilt, church reroofed and restored 1881 by
Samuel Shewbroors of Taunton, builder. Red sandstone random rubble, rendered in part, red sandstone dressings, slate
roofs, caper verges. West tower, 4-bay nave with north aisle, south porch, north-east vestry and chancel. Crenellateo
3-stage tower, diagonal buttresses, 2-light trefoil headed bell openings with Somerset tracery, string course, lancet
on south face, string course, 2-light west window, no west door, stair turret in north-east corner; south front with
C19 hoodmoulds, lancet to left of single storey gabled porch, pointed arched opening chamfered in 2 orders and dying
into imposts, pointed arch inner doorway, chamfered in 2 orders, right large C16 4-light cinquefoil headed mullioned
window with moulded surround, to right long C19 window, large buttress, 2-light windows with quatrefoil decoration to
spandrels in diagonally buttressed chancel, 3-light east window, 2-light mullioned window with decorated spandrels in
vestry, pointed arch doorway on north front, butt-joint at junction with north aisle, four 2-light windows between
buttresses. Interior: rendered. C19 chancel arch, double chamfered jambs, largely obscured by screen but letters BOA
visible on south jamb, CHIN on north jamb, C19 arcade with pointed arches chamfered in 2 orders and clustered columns;
tower arch pointed and chamfered; chamfered and pointed arch to turret stair with late medieval studded plank door with
long hinges. C19 roofs, boarded barrel vault to chancel, arch braced to nave, lean-to roof in aisle with archbracing
resting on corbels. Late medieval rood screen of 3:2:3 bays partly reconstructed to design by F Bligh Bond, executed by
A C Toms in memory of Robert Toms 1963. Jacobean panelling used as reredos. Rare example of dated altar rails, turned
balusters and moulded handrail inscribed "Edward Hobbes Gent and Roger Bishop Churchwardens Anno Domini 1667". C17
chest. C16 benches in nave, detached piece of wood dated 1596, benches in north aisle C19 copies. Late C18-early C19
panelled pulpit. Octagonal font with carved panels of decoration on bowl and one panel begun at base of bowl, said to
be C16; C17 flat ribbed cover. Two painted boards dated 1821 with names of churchwardens and the Ten Commandments;
another wooden board detailing the 1881 restoration. Memorial tablet with draped urn signed T King of Bath to Thomas
Canplin died 1780: tablet to Meredith Powell died 1642. Carving chair with coat of arms in sanctuary, possibly C18.
Organ said to have been inserted 1910. The design by Bligh Bond for restoration of screen with or without attic is hung
in vestry. The VCH comments that there is no evidence to support Pevsner's assertion that the architect of the 1881
rebuilding was one H Parsons. (VCH Somerset, Vol V, 1985; Pevsner, Buildings of England, South and West Somerset,
1958)
Listing NGR: ST0850432347
