Details
ST52NE BABCARY CP CHURCH STREET (West side
3/6
Church of the Holy Cross
17.4.59
GV II*
Anglican parish church. Pre-conquest origins; fabric of C14, C15 with chancel and north aisle added in C19, latter by
Benjamin Ferrey in 1875-6. Local lias stone cut and squared, Doulting stone dressings: stone slate roofs between
stepped coped gables having cross finials. Three-cell plan of 2-bay chancel and 3-bay nave and north aisle, with west
tower and south porch. Chancel may incorporate early work (church described as having nave only in 1822): rough plinth,
no buttresses; 3-light early C15 style traceried east window under arched label with square stops; above a store block
with sundial, set on skew on iron bracket; on north side two 2-light windows, the east flat-arched with cinquefoil
cusped lights under square label with headstops, the west matches east window; on south side two 2-light early C15
style printed arched windows with square stop labels, and between them a small doorway with moulded 4-centre arches:
head under square stopped label. The C19 north aisle has a plinth, angled corner buttresses with moulded offsets:
2-light arched window matching the chancel window in the east wall, with plain stop label and external terrmenta
this could be a reset C15 window: the north wall has a shallow coping over eaves moulding with gargoyles; the centre
bay has a 3-light and the others 2-light windows with C16 style tracery of ogees and quatrefoils to flat arched lights
with deep square labels to foliated stops: no west window to aisle. Nave has chamfered plinth, bay buttresses with
moulded offsets; in south wall the eastern window is 3-light possibly C15, with ogee traceried flat arched window in
hollowed recess under square label with animal stops; western window is a C19 version of the chancel windows of
2-light: between these the south porch, which has angled corner buttresses, moulded pointed outer arch and plain
chamfered inner arch; the roof probably C15, an archbraced collar truss of 2 bays with moulded main members and various
timber bosses; bench seats, a small open cusped lancet in east wall, and early C20 gate with traceried panels. Tower
could be C14: 3 stages, with plinth, string courses, with gargoyles to top string, shallow battlemented parapet; angled
corner buttresses 2 stages high; square plan north-east stair turret with 3 slit windows and two double quatrefoil
pierced panels: on west face low moulded pointed arched doorway with arched label, and above a 3-light C15 traceried
window in slightly hollowed recess under arched label extended as side string; the other sides plain on first stage
second stage has small 4-centre arched 2-light window in south side only: stage 3 has similar 2-light windows each
face, with wood louvres, and with a small doorway of unknown purpose on south face. Interior largely C19 in character:
chance1 austere, with C19 arch braced collar truss roof; early C14 tall pointed arched piscina with stone shelf
chancel arch nearly 4-centred, with small centre shaft columns and turned caps; door to former rood loft in north wall.
Nave arcade C19, with bell-cap stilted segmental arches, C19 roof; tall moulded pointed tower arch with stiff-leaf
foliage capitals to full-length shafts; north aisle unplastered. Fittings include octagonal panelled wood pulpit dated
1632; font probably C14, octagonal with quatrefoil panelled faces, traceried underbowl and rather slim traceried
octagonal shalt on C19 base. First recorded rector 1319: Parson Woodforde, diarist, was curate here from January 1764
to October 1765. (Pevsner, Buildings of England, South and West Somerset, 1958; C and J Greenwood, Somerset Delineated,
1822).
Listing NGR: ST5614828774