Details
DITCHEAT CP
ST6235
DITCHEAT VILLAGE
16/88
Church of St Mary Magdalene
(formerly listed as Church of St
Mary)
2.6.61
GV I
Anglican parish church, C12, C13, C14, C15, C19 restoration. Local lias and freestone, cut and squared, some rendering
particularly to the tower, lead-sheeting roofs. Nave, chancel, north and south aisles, north and south transepts,
crossing tower, large 2-storeyed south porch. Decorated and Perpendicular. Four-bay embattled nave with 3-light
clerestorey windows, gargoyles, pinnacles, tall 4-light west window, grotesque heads as label stops, west door, paired
C18 doors, label with carved heads of a bishop and a king. Narrow 4-bay embattled aisles, gargoyles, pinnacles,
buttresses, 3-light windows. Porch with an embattled parapet, pinnacles, gargoyles, squat diagonal buttresses, inside
is benched with a flagstone floor. Three-stage tower with massive diagonal buttresses to east, embattled parapet with
corner pinnacles, 2-light bell-chamber windows, polygonal stair-turret to north with weathervane, large clock to south.
Three-bay chancel with clerestorey, embattled parapet with shields in relief, 2- light traceried windows, 3-light east
window, spheric triangle in head with trefoils, priest's door to south with surface tracery, external C18 wall monument
to the east end. Embattled transepts, 3 and 4-light windows, short section of C18 railings between south transept and
porch, The interior mainly plastered on flagstone, tile and encaustic tile floors. Four-bay arcades to aisles, lofty
piers of 4-hollows section; the tower supported on 4 arches of 2 chamfered orders, base of piers with ledge seating.
Stone fan-vault-under the tower, nave under good tie-beam roof, arcading and angel busts; lean to roofs to aisles with
moulded ribs, bosses and angel corbels; plain C19 roof to chancel. Chancel windows with cusped rere-arches. Flanking
west tower iron are 2 small carved figures. Entrance to the former rood loft. Two hagioscopes. North aisle with large
C13 wall-painting of St Christopher. Octagonal C14/C15 font with early C18 tester. South transept with cusped piscina.
Chancel with sedilia and a piscina. C15 effigy to chancel. Restorer richly carved Jacobean pulpit and reader. C17
chest. Part of a C17 screen incorporated in C19 screen in north transept. Former C17 altar table modified C18 to become
a desk. Full set of C18 pews, some with archaic carving (strapwork etc.), altered C19. C19 High Gothick chancel fittings
which include choir stalls, reredos, altar rails and memorials. Very fine C18 marble wall monument in south transept
with a pediment and a bust, further good monument over south door by Ford of Bath with grieving muse; eight principal
C19 wall monuments. Large wooden cartouche to Robert Hopton, dated 1610, though probably later. Unusual large C18
wooden cartouche. Some fragments of medieval glass to top lights of windows. Hanoverian royal arms. Large organ by
Vowles, dated 1888, (Pevsner N., Buildings of England, South and West Somerset, l958; Church guide, deposited NMR 1950
Photographs in NMR; John Buckler illustration, 1844; W.W. Wheatley illustration, 1844; SANHS proceedings, 24, i,
48).
Listing NGR: ST6256636329
