Details
CHEDZOY CP WARD LANE (North side)
ST33NW
1/9 Church of St Mary
29.3.63
GV I
Anglican parish church. C13, C14, C15, C16, restored 1884-85 probably by William Butterfield. Coursed and squared rubble, freestone dressings, tile and lead-sheeting roofs, crested ridges, copings to verges with cruciform finials. Nave with clerestory, north and south aisles, south porch, north and south transepts, chancel, north vestry, west tower. Predominantly Perpendicular, high 3-stage tower of Quantock type, set-back buttresses which end in long shafts of former pinnacles, string below parapet with gargoyles, embattled parapet with blank quatrefoil banding, corner pinnacles, paired 2-light bell-chamber openings with tracery, louvres, flanking shafts with pinnacles; similar single windows on ringing chamber stage below, that to south with inset clock face, polygonal stair turret on north side, tall 4-light west window with 2 sub-arches, below door opening with a 4-centred arch head, foliate spandrels, paired ribbed doors. Five-bay nave, clerestory with 3-light square-headed windows. Three-bay south aisle, small 2-light square-head window and a 2-light traceried pointed head-window, square-headed west window with tracery, buttresses, parapet. This parapet continues around south porch, cruciform finial, door opening with a chamfered head to segmental pointed arch, over a freestone panel with initials R.B. (Abbot R. Beere of Glastonbury (1493-1524)), R.F., an heraldic shield with a Wyvern, and also date 1579; interior benched on a flagstone floor, late C13 inner doorway with fine C16 door, ribbed and studded with lozenge decoration. Three bay north aisle, narrower than the south, square-headed 2 and 3-light windows with tracery, north doorway with plank door, scrolly C15 ironwork; parapet, buttresses. Single-bay transepts with shallow gables, parapets, large 4-light windows. Chancel rebuilt in facsimile, late C13, though incorporates some medieval work; 2 bays, north lancets with pointed trefoiled rere-arches; south window of 2-lights with Y-tracery and broad trefoiled rere-arch, also a 3-light Perpendicular window with label, square head; large 4-light Perpendicular east window. On south side of chancel traces of a former chapel, circular pier with 4-attached shafts and the chamfered arches of 2 bays, on the east wall of the south transept the remains of 2 large circular piers and an arch.
Interior plastered on flagstone floors, encaustic pavement to chancel. Good moulded tie-beam roof to nave, panelled lean-to roofs to aisles, wagon roof to chancel with a carved wall-plate with bosses, gilded decoration. Restored C13 5-bay aisle arcades, circular piers, moulded caps, double-chamfered arches. Panelled Perpendicular tower arch; panelled arches to transepts. In north transept an inserted Elizabethan arch with leaf decoration, calvary above, probably a former entrance to a chantry. C13 style sedilia. Perpendicular stoup. Octagonal font, Early English. Upper and lower entrances to rood. Good medieval chest. Full set of benches with carved ends, broad tracery, geometrical patterns, leaf motifs and on one the monogram of Queen Mary (1554-59); some C17 benches, Eliabethan pulpit with linenfold panelling. Jacobean lectern, altar rails, altar table, chair and organ seat made up of re-used panels. C18 kneeler with turned
balusters. Hatchment. Brass in nave to Richard Sydenham in armour, c1490. C18 wall monuments. High Gothic fittings associated with 1884 rebuild including candelabra, rood screen (which may incorporate medieval remains), organ,
reredos, altar rails, choir stalls, and stained glass. Further stained glass window of 1908, probably by Morris and Co. Grooves on south buttresses are said to have been made by Monmouth's army sharpening their weapons prior to the Battle
of Sedgemoor. (Pevsner, N. Buildings of England, South and West Somerset, 1958; SANHS Proceedings 29 36; Church guide,
anon, no date).
Listing NGR: ST3411537666
