Details
HIGH HAM CP THE GREEN (North side)
ST43SW
2/28 Church of St. Andrew
17.4.59
GV I
Anglican Parish Church. Traces of C12 and C14 work in tower, remainder mostly rebuilt in 1476, some C19 restoration by
John Norton. Local lias stone cut and squared, Ham stone dressings; Welsh slated main roofs with moulded coped gables
behind battlemented parapets; sheet lead aisle and porch roofs, behind battlements. Four-cell plan of 3-bay chancel,
5-bay nave and north and south aisles, with added south porch and west tower. Chancel, late C15, has double plinth
course, eaves course with gargoyles, crenellated parapets; coped gable set behind east gable proper; angled corner and
bay buttresses with pinnacles to corners, and formerly to each buttress: east window of 5 lights, sub-arcuated tracery,
set in hollowed recess with pointed arched label having headstops; north and south sides have 3-light windows to match,
but in both cases no window to centre bay - north side blank, south has small almost triangular 4-centre arched moulded
doorway. Nave visible as a clerestorey: 3-light traceried windows set in 4-centre arched chamfered recesses, no labels,
with gargoyle string course and crenellation above. North aisle has double plinth, eaves course with gargoyles,
battlements, bay and angled corner buttresses; 3-light windows of standard tracery in hollowed pointed-arched recesses
without labels, but no windows centre bay, instead a 4-centre arched chamfered doorway; east window of 2 light with
cusped Y-tracery similar to Low Ham Church (qv) and may be late C17. Similar late window in east wall of south aisle,
which matches north aisle; in middle bay the porch, similar in detail but lower; angled corner buttresses, pitched
moulded gable coping with sundial at crown; near semi-circular arched doorway with C19 wrot iron gates; to right a
canopied stoup, and above a canopied statue niche with C19 figure: inside a fine moulded rib and panel timber roof with
rose and leaf bosses; and original inner door with traceried head. Tower of 3 stages, rather squat; triple plinth
bands, string courses, battlemented parapets with small canopied figure to one south merlon, and corner gargoyles;
angled corner buttresses to west side, and straight buttresses east face continued as west walls of aisles, north east
corner stair turret slightly higher than tower: small pointed arched doorway in plinth of south wall, and set on plinth
in west wall a 3-light window set in very deep hollowed pointed arched recess without label; to stage 2 a small
trefoil-cusped single-light window under square label to three faces, with clock on south; stage 3 has 2-light near
semi-circular arched windows all faces, fitted with pierced stone baffles. Inside, the interior almost entirely C15.
Chancel has fine moulded kingpost truss roof, with arched-braced ties and a wealth of rosettes, angels and other
carvings; 2 empty statue niches in east wall; choir stalls incorporate C15 work, and in the wide panelled chancel arch
a timber screen of the Devon type with elaborate fan-vaulted overthrow, well preserved. gave has standard hollowed
4-shaft piers to arcading, and matching roof, but the tower arch could be C13. Pulpit and lectern C19, but many C15
bench ends to pews. Moulded rib and panel timber roofs to both aisles, matching the south porch: in south aisle a C17
altar table, and a C12 lead-lined tulip bowl font on turned base with cable mould, a C20 cover in a C17 style. Some
fragments of C15 stained glass in the east window tracery. Brass tablet to John Dyer, died 1499, Rector who paid for
rebuilding of chancel. (Pevsner N, Buildings of England, South and West Somerset, 1958; Revd. R C P Terrell - A Guide
to St. Andrew's Church, High Ham, unpublished, undated).
Listing NGR: ST4252531068
