The Church of St Andrew & St Mary in

Pitminster Pitminster is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated south of Taunton. The parish has a population of 956. The parish also includes the villages of Angersleigh and Blagdon Hill. The village of Blagdon is now officially known ...

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, England was built around 1300 and has been designated as a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. The current church was built circa 1300 on the site of an earlier Saxon church and expanded in the 15th century. During a

Victorian restoration The Victorian restoration was the widespread and extensive wikt:refurbish, refurbishment and rebuilding of Church of England church (building), churches and cathedrals that took place in England and Wales during the 19th-century Victorian era, re ...

in 1869,

George Gilbert Scott Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), largely known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he ...

rebuilt the north aisle and south porch and rebuilt the west chapel. In addition he replaced the clerestory windows and rebuilt the chancel arch. in 1937 the chancel was restored by J.D. Caroe and in 1979 the lady chapel was also restored. The primary building material of the structure is random rubble local stone with dressed stones features of ham stone. The roof is predominantly slate with coped verges with lead roof on the spire and south porch. The tower is in the west and is of two square stages. The lead covered spire is of octagonal shape and is connected to the tower via a quatrefoil parapet and two-light bell-opening. The west window is of three lights and the vestry is of two lights. The vestry is supported by setback buttresses while the south aisle is structurally supported with diagonal buttresses. The porch is of the 19th century and is gabled and single story and is diagonally buttressed. The opening of the porch is moulded as is the inner doorway. The door into the church is also of the 19th century and is accented with decorative hinges. To the right of the door on the porch side are two three light windows with right flanking stepped buttresses. The church also has rood stair turrets on either side of the chancel arch indicative of the one time existence of a rood screen and rood loft; which the stairs provided access to. Such screens were largely removed in the aftermath of the English reformation as they were seen as remnants of Catholicism. A select few 16th century bench (pew) ends remain though most are of the 19th century. The pulpit is a handsome example of the early 17th century with a

sounding board A sounding board, also known as a tester and abat-voix is a structure placed above and sometimes also behind a pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platf ...

above it from th
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in

Frome Frome ( ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, on uneven high ground at the eastern end of the Mendip Hills and on the River Frome, south of Bath. The population of the parish was 28,559 in 2021. Frome was one of the largest tow ...

; most likely originally created by London craftsman. Notably, nearby the organ is

linenfold Linenfold (or linen fold) is a simple style of relief carving used to decorate wood panelling with a design "imitating window tracery", "imitating folded linen" or "stiffly imitating folded material". Originally from Flanders, the style became ...

paneling. The

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

is of the 15th century and is octagonal and

perpendicular In geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at right angles, i.e. at an angle of 90 degrees or π/2 radians. The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the '' perpendicular symbol'', � ...

is form. It features

quatrefoil A quatrefoil (anciently caterfoil) is a decorative element consisting of a symmetrical shape which forms the overall outline of four partially overlapping circles of the same diameter. It is found in art, architecture, heraldry and traditional ...

decorated panels, two carved with depictions of

St George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the R ...

and St James of Conpostela, later panel depicting

Christ Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...

. The

lectern A lectern is a standing reading desk with a slanted top, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon. A lectern is usually attached to a stand or affixed to some other form of ...

is of brass and is in memory of William Amasa Copp who died in 1901. Altar and other sanctuary fixtures are from the W.D. Caroe restoration. There are remains of medieval stained glass in upper lights of the lady chapel north window. Otherwise, the church is a collection of late 19th to post war 20th century glass including that in the lady chapel east window (of 1894) and west window (of 1904) - both by Keape. The east window is of 1881. The interior is distinguished by effigy tombs of three generations of the Colles family who were lords of the manor in the 16th and 17th centuries. In early 2020, during the

Coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the church suffered heritage damage. The Anglican parish is part of the Blackdown benefice within the archdeaconry of Taunton.

See also

References

Further reading