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.
