Church of St George

Details

RUISHTON CP DRAKES CLOSE (West side) ST22NE

1/100 Church of St George 25.2.55 GV I Parish church. Norman, C14-C15 south chapel, refenestrated late C15, tower begun 1530'5, upper stages 1549, restored and reseated 1866. Roughcast over rubble, Ham stone dressings, squared and coursed blue lias tower, random rubble south chapel with parapet to slate roof, coped verges. West tower, 4-bay nave, 2 and a half bay south chapel, south porch, chancel. Unfinished 4-stage tower without crenellations or parapet, pinnacles on setback buttresses, gargoyles, 2-light bell openings with Somerset tracery, 2-light window below flanked by empty canopied niches with angle corbels, friezes of quatrefoil decoration, 4-light west window with continuous hood mould set on quatrefoil decorated frieze, 4-centred arch west door, hood mould with angle terminals, decorated spandrels, C19 double doors, clock on south face, stair turret in north east corner also unfinished; south front, 2-light window left of single storey gabled porch of dressed Ham stone, moulded arch opening, sundial above C16 ribbed ceiled barrel vault, Norman scalloped capital resting on plinth and carrying entablature, no arch, to left of recessed chamfered 4-centred arch doorway with beaded, scalloped capital to right only; south chapel projecting right with reset carved saint on arris, gargoyles below parapet set above C20 stepped buttresses flanking two 2-light windows, early C19 lias tablet to Bennett family, 3-light east window, 2-light north window to chancel, doorway to right, projecting rood stair with tiny 2-light window, two 2-light windows in north wall of nave with 2 large and 2 small buttresses centre. Interior: rendered. Perpendicular tower arch with panelled jambs, 2-light unglazed squint window in chancel wall giving view from chapel, doorway through giving access from chapel to chancel; 2-bay Perpendicular arcade to chapel, eastern arch springing from chancel wall. Stone winder stairs to rood loft cut across jambs of chancel window. Early C16 ceiled wagon roof to chancel, plastered chapel roof, ceiled wagon roof to nave, moulded 4-panel compartment ceiling in tower. Fine carved and gilded Stuart royal coat of arms. Extravagant late Perpendicular font, 4 square decorated shafts carrying octagonal panelled bowl on fan vaulting pier, crockets and quatrefoil decoration. C18 panelled dado and turned baluster altar rails. Some medieval stained glass surviving in rood stair window, much unsigned C19 glass. Early Cl9 stone altar in chapel, octagonal with part fluted Doric columns. Pulpit c1920 presented as a thanks offering for the preservation of the 3 sons of the Somerville family of Ruishton House in the 1914-18 war. Collection of memorials: slate and marble wall tablet to John Arundel, died 1784, with sorrowing figure by urn in roundel, signed Drewett of Bristol; wall tablet to Charles Proctor Anderdon, died 1824, signed T King of Bath with sorrowing figure by broken column; slate memorial to Jane Kimberly, died 1808, signed M Long, Taunton; tablet of painted Ham stone to James Bond (007) and Mathew Bond died 1750 and 1756; small brass to Edith Strong, died 1769; and collection of C18 slate and warble tablets to the Proctor and Anderdon families. (Photograph in NMR; Kellys Directory 1889; Pevsner, Buildings of England, South and West Somerset, 1958; Proceedings SANHS, vol 44, 1898).

Listing NGR: ST2637025113

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

270891

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: South and West Somerset, (1958)
Kelly's Directory in Kelly's Directory, (1889)
Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society in Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, Vol. 44, (1898)

End of official list entry

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