Details
HATCH BEAUCHAMP CP
ST32SW
HATCH BEAUCHAMP VILLAGE
6/16 Church of St John the Baptist
25.2.55
GV I
Parish church. Norman in origin, c1500 tower, porch dated 1530, north aisle chapel 1825, south aisle and chapel added
1834, church restored, chancel arch rebuilt further east and end bays of north and south aisles added in 1867 by Sir
6eorge Gilbert Scott, earlier addition by Richard Carver. Squared and coursed blue lias, Ham stone dressings, slate
roofs, coped verges. West tower, 3 and a half bay nave, north and south aisles, north chapel, south vestry with organ
bay, chancel. Crenellated 3-stage tower with crocketed pinnacles, pierced parapet with quatrefoils and arcades in the
merlons, gargoyles, corbelled out pinnacles rising from diagonal buttresses, 3-light bell-openings with Somerset
tracery, 4-light west window set on lintel of Tudor arch head doorway with decorated spandrels, C19 door, north east
stair turret; 3-light west window to south aisle, 3-light windows flanking single storey gabled porch, C19 Tudor arch
inner doorway, much restored late medieval door, diagonally buttressed transept (vestry), 3-light window in gable end,
door on east front, large 3-light south window to chancel with decorated spandrels, 3-light east window, diagonal
buttresses, 2-light window on north wall of chancel, 3-light window at east end of north said to be reset from east end
of north aisle, C19 doorway, north front four 3-light windows with stepped buttresses between, blocked moulded Tudor
arch opening, some pieces of quatrefoil decorated panels either from tower or from crenellated parapet to aisle
inserted in plinth, 3-light west window. Interior: rendered. Perpendicular arcade with leaf band capital, south arcade
C19 coped. C19 pointed arch in south east corner, north east narrow arch with respond, chancel wall set squint to nave
with C19 Perpendicular style arch. Perpendicular tower arch. C19 roofs, open wagon roof in chancel, arch braced in
nave, both with stencilled decoration, panelled, shallow pitch aisle roofs. South aisle windows with panelled jambs,
also east and west windows of north aisle, north front window with decorated spandrels; remains of 2-light window in
north wall of chancel now lighting organ bay. C19 piscina and aumbry, stone reredos and tiles in sancturary. Organ
1875. Some late medieval bench ends, majority carved c1840 by Samuel Blackmore. C19 stained glass: window of south
aisle to Ellen Raban died 1854, signed A Gibbs, Bedford Square London. South chancel window dedicated to Col Chard, VC,
the hero of Rorkes Drift who died at The Close, Hatch Beauchamp (not included in this list), in 1897. His brother was
the Rector of St Johns church. Remains of medieval stained glass in upper lights of west window in north wall of north
aisle. Early C19 panelling forming vestry at west end of north aisle; 1904 panelled screen to tower arch. By chancel
steps slate slab to John Towning died 1721, and another ilegible to north. Large oil painting of the Entombment in
chancel. The chancel arch demolished in 1867 is said to have been Norman. (Pevsner, Buildings of England South and West
Somerset, 1958; Kelly's Directory 1914; Photograph in NMR).
Listing NGR: ST3060321124
