Church of St Mary the Virgin

CHURCH OF ST MARY THE VIRGIN

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
I
List Entry Number:
1260420
Date first listed:
19-Apr-1961
List Entry Name:
Church of St Mary the Virgin
Statutory Address:
CHURCH OF ST MARY THE VIRGIN
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Date:
2001-06-30
Reference:
IOE01/10262/36
Rights:
© Mrs Sue Durant. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
I
List Entry Number:
1260420
Date first listed:
19-Apr-1961
List Entry Name:
Church of St Mary the Virgin
Statutory Address 1:
CHURCH OF ST MARY THE VIRGIN

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:
CHURCH OF ST MARY THE VIRGIN

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:
Somerset (Unitary Authority)
Parish:
Stoke sub Hamdon
National Grid Reference:
ST 48392 17277

Details

S4817 STOKE SUB HAMDON CP EAST STOKE (South side)
7/284 Church of St Mary the Virgin
19.4.61
GV I
Anglican Parish Church. C12, C13 et seq; restored 1862 by Benjamin Ferrey, west vestries 1916 by C.E. Ponting. Ham
stone, coursed rubble with dressings and ashlar; Welsh slate, stone slate base courses, coped east gable to chancel,
elsewhere shallow pitch sheet lead roofs behind parapets. Cruciform plan: north porch and parvise, west vestries, tower
over north transept, chancel 3 bays, nave 3 bays, transepts single-bay. Chancel c1100: low chamfered plinth, plain east
wall, corner pilasters and bay buttresses to sides, eaves corbel table carried on grotesques, east window 4-light C15
subarcuated tracery in hollowed recess under square-stopped label; east bay south side paired simple lancets, centre
bay has single wider lancet and also a semi-circular arched window with Celtic style archstone below a triangular-
arched doorway with scratch dial on jamb; west bay has cusped lancet with later rectangular window under; north side
has C13 traceried 2-light ciquefoil cusped window in east bay with matching single lights to other bays, the labels
arched but cut short of springing. South transept: double plinth, eaves mould to plain parapet; cinquefoil cusped
lancet to south gable, with label; to east and west walls 4 single trefoil-cusped lancets. Nave: corbelled battlemented
parapet, end pilasters, south side a C15 4-light traceried window in hollowed recess with square stopped label, below a
blocked C12 doorway with tympanum missing but one fishscaled and one barleysugar-twist side shaft remain with scalloped
caps and impost blocks; to centre bay a cinquefoil cusped lancet with headstop label, and to left small C12 window with
herringbone ornament to archstone, west window 5-light reticulated tracery under headstop label, north wall has
cinquefoil cusped lancet and small C12 window with carving of St. George and dragon on archstone, below a C13 canopy
with cross. North porch and parvise: pointed arched outer doorway with label, trefoil cusped statue niche in square
recess over, inside quadripartite vault and C12 doorway having a panelled octagonal and a circular fishscale sideshaft
with debased Ionic caps carrying tympanum carved with zodiac signs under roll mould, early ledged and boarded doors;
above a 3-light reticulated tracery window without label, stairlight to right; on west wall a stone slate roofed
projection for stairway, 2 cusped lancets, and 2 rectangular recesses. Tower: 3 stages, string courses, top with
gargoyles, battlemented parapets, projection with rectangular windows to east, 3-light C15 traceried north window to
lowest stage, slim rectangular window to west stage 2; top stage has pairs lancets with roll-mould jambs and
double-arched labels stopped short of springing. Inside: chancel has C20 ceiling by McGregor, rere-arches to all but
east window, the eastern side windows having side shafts and trefoil arches; C12 chancel arch with offsets and roll
mouldings with billet, chevron and dogtooth ornament on nave side, plain main shafts, with slots for dividing
partition, chevron and fishscale side shafts, all caps debased Ionic, probably recut; squints to both sides. North
transept: quadripartite vault on carved corbels, reused C15 stone screen and C15 stone altar. South transept: C19
panelled ceiling, rere-arches to side windows with carved heads between, angled cinquefoil cusped piscina. Nave ceiling
mostly C16 moulded rib and panel with leaf bosses; doorways to rood loft. Fittings: C17 altar table, Laudian altar
rails, early C17 octagonal panelled pulpit, circular tub font with rings of cable ornament, C13 water stoup to jamb of
south transept arch, pews with some early bench ends. Memorials: effigy in chancel north wall of Thomas Strode, died
1595; stone tablet in east will to John Strode, died 1725; in south transept effigy of C14 Reginald de Moncketan. C19
painting in tympanum over north door, traces of wall paintings in various parts of nave it higher levels. East window
has medieval stained glass in tracery, war memorial window by Bell below. [VCR Vol III, 1974; Pevsner II, Buildings of
England, South and West Somerset, 1958; Leaflet in Church).


Listing NGR: ST4839217277


This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 14 December 2016.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:
440779
Legacy System:
LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: South and West Somerset, (1958)
Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Somerset, (1974)

Websites
War Memorials Register, accessed 14/12/2016 from http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/25136
War Memorials Online, accessed 14/12/2016 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/238592

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.

Ordnance survey map of Church of St Mary the Virgin

Map

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 30-Jun-2026 at 17:32:16.

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End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

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