Details
ST 46 NE BROCKLEY CHELVEY (north side)
6/51 CHURCH OF ST BRIDGET
11.10.61
G.V. I
Parish Church (Anglican). C12, altered c. 1300 (chancel), C14 and C15. West
tower, nave, south aisle and chapel, south porch, chancel. Coursed rubble with
freestone dressings, ashlar porch; slate roofs with coped raised verges. West
tower of 3 stages with diagonal buttresses; pierced parapet of trefoils within
triangles, corner pinnacles; 2-light bellchamber openings with cusped tracery;
3-light Perpendicular style west window and west door in moulded surround and
under plain hoodmould; projecting polygonal stair tower on a square base to the
north-east. Nave has two 3-light Perpendicular style windows (restored) with
cusped tracery; central buttress with off-sets. Chancel has two single light
cusped lancet windows; the east window is similar to the nave windows. South
aisle and chapel: the east and 3 south windows are all 2-light, early Perpendicular
style windows with plain ogee heads to the lights. The south porch is slightly
set back behind the south aisle: diagonal buttress with off-sets; blank arcaded
parapet; double wave moulding to the outer door; possibly reset C12 window on
west wall. South doorway is mid C12: single columns with scalloped capitals,
inner roll-moulding and thick roll-moulded arched; stoup to right with cusped
ogee head. Interior. Tower arch of 2 wave moulding. The chancel is marked
by a projection inwards of the north wall. Blocked north door with a chamfered
surround and a depressed 2-centred arch. 2 bay arcade to south aisle and a
smaller bay to the south chapel; the piers have alternating columns and wave
mouldings; 4-centred arches. Chancel: the north windows have deep embrasures;
the reredos is C19 but the frame is late C15 or C16, rectangular, decorated with
fleurons and a crested top, the centre of which forms a canopy which rises above
the window sill; flanking, plain, square-headed image niches; stone dado of the
rood screen survives with a mortised sill beam for the screen. South aisle;
ribbed and panelled roof with moulded wall- plates; rectangular, moulded surround
to an inset for a reredos; flanking cusped ogee-headed image niches; piscina
with cusped ogee head; 3 recessed niches in south wall with cusped and crocketted
ogee canopies and blank arcaded bases. Pulpit: C19, wooden polygonal top on
an ashlar base; behind is a blocked, chamfered doorway (probably to a missing or
hidden rood stair). Font: probably C12 but recut; ashlar, octagonal bowl on
an octagonal stem; C17 top. Pews: the front of the south nave pews is dated
1621/W.G. (William Gregory, Rector), panelled with a foliage frieze; the south
chapel has 7 coarsely cut mediaeval benches, some retaining lozenge-shaped poppy
heads and at the west end is the Tynte family pew, Jacobean, a panelled front
with a foliage frieze and urn finials, the door has double S-shaped hinges, a
high back with blank arcading, an enriched frieze and a moulded cornice;
4 further coarsely cut mediaeval benches to west end of south side of nave; wall
painting, on the north chancel wall, of a ragged cross with a circle. Glass.
Nave, north side; late C15 reversed pane of glass bearing arms; fragments of
C14 yellow glass as symbols of the Evangelists. Chancel, east window; 013 and
C15 fragments, including the head of Christ and a tonsured head of a male saint
with roses, crowns and borderwork. South aisle; several sun roundels.
Monument: incised Purbeck slab to a knight, reset in the south chapel, probably
1250-1270. (N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England : North Somerset and Bristol,
1958. C. Woodforde, The Stained Glass of Somerset, 1250-1830; 1946).
Listing NGR: ST4661868369
