Church of St Mary Magdalene

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

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

268292

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Church of St Mary Magdalene Ditcheat Guide, ()
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: South and West Somerset, (1958)
Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society in Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, Vol. 24, (), 48

End of official list entry

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