Charlinch: Blessed Virgin Mary
Diocese of Bath & Wells
Closed Church, 601406
This church is on the Heritage at Risk Register (verified 2024-11-14)
View more information about this church on the Heritage at Risk website
Overview
Grid reference: ST 238 378
The church presents a pleasingly varied aspect from the south, with the west tower and south transept providing the dominant elements and subsidiary parts being taken by the porch and the south wall of the nave and chancel. The west tower is rectangular on plan with an octagonal turret at the south-east angle which contains the staircase.
Visiting and facilities
Building is closed for worship
Building
Ground Plan Description and Dimensions
Ground plan:
West tower, nave with south porch and transeptal chapel chancel with north vestry and organ chamber.
Description of Archaeology and History
The south doorway is Norman, as are the responds of the chancel arch, though the arch itself is thirteenth-century. The east window and one in the south chancel wall are fourteenth-century and another is seventeenth-century. The porch is also probably fourteenth century. The south chapel was added in the fifteenth century and the roofs were also renewed about this time. The west tower was rebuilt in 1867 (there is some doubt as to whether there was even a tower here at all before this date), and the church was restored in 1887. The south porch was rebuilt at this time, and the north transept or vestry was probably demolished, the organ chamber and present vestry being built further east on the north side of the chancel. The tablet in the porch records that the restoration was carried out to commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, and the rainwater heads also bear the date 1887.
Exterior Description
The church presents a pleasingly varied aspect from the south, with the west tower and south transept providing the dominant elements and subsidiary parts being taken by the porch and the south wall of the nave and chancel. The west tower is rectangular on plan with an octagonal turret at the south-east angle which contains the staircase. There are three stages, each receding slightly in height and width. The western corners have diagonal buttresses which die into the walls at the head of the middle stage. There are two chamfered courses near the foot of the walls and then a moulded plinth about three feet above the step of the west doorway.
The lowest stage is divided by a string course on the west wall only into two storeys, with a doorway below which has a moulded four centred arch outlined by a moulded hood with carved heads at the stops and quatrefoils with shields in the unusually shaped spandrels at each side. The three- light west window has a moulded surround and a hood with returned ends, and cinquefoiled heads to the main lights with two panels of tracery above.
The middle stage, which has a moulded string only on the west face, has a three-light window in the west wall with ogee heads to the main lights which are purposely short in order to accommodate a clock face also within the arch. The north wall is blind but the south wall has a cinquefoiled lancet in a hollow-moulded surround.
The top stage has identical openings in all four walls, each consisting of two ogee-headed lights with a pointed quatrefoil above, all fitted with timber louvres. Below the parapet there is a moulded course with a gargoyle at each corner and on the corners of the parapet, which has large moulded merlons, there are stumpy crocketted pinnacles. The stair turret, which is lit by a lancet at each level, rises above the parapet into a stone pyramid roof capped by a simple iron weathervane.
The nave is broad and relatively low, with a roof of low pitch. The south wall has no buttresses and only space for one fourteenth century two-light window before the porch, and the north wall has one buttress near the west end and one window to the west of the blocked north doorway and another to the east.
The porch has a cross gable, and is very plain, with an outer arch having only a rough chamfer and no carved decoration or hood.
The south chapel has a blind west wall but three-light windows in the south and east walls. The former has three equal lights with cinquefoiled heads under a square head without a hood and the east window also has cinquefoiled heads to the main lights, but has tracery of four trefoil-headed lights. The angles of the chapel are unbuttressed.
The chancel has a three-light east window with reticulated tracery and a moulded hood which seems to retain old heads as stops. At the north-east and south-east angles there are small buttresses. In the south wall are two windows, the eastern of which has three simple uncusped lights under a dsquare head with a moulded label, and the western of which is tall and slender, of two lights with tracery of a pointed quatrefoil and two half quatrefoils under a square head also with a moulded label. The vestry on the north is L-shaped with a blind east wall and a broad north gable with brick copings and a small window with triangular heads to the two lights under a square moulded label.
Building Fabric and Features
Door Lintel
Medieval South doorway late C12th
Historical Notes
1150 - 1199
Period Qualifier: 2
Chancel Arch
Medieval Chancel arch piers late C12th
Historical Notes
1150 - 1199
Period Qualifier: 2
Tower (component)
14th-16th Century Perpendicular style tower - restored
Historical Notes
1300 - 1599
Period Qualifier: 2
Barrel Vault
14th-16th Century Perpendicular style barrel roof
Historical Notes
1300 - 1599
Period Qualifier: 2
Transept
14th-16th Century Perpendicular style South transept
Historical Notes
1300 - 1599
Period Qualifier: 2
Church
Medieval Earliest parts are the late C12th South doorway and chancel arch piers
Historical Notes
1150 - 1199
Period Qualifier: 2
South doorway and chancel arch piers
1300 - 1599
Period Qualifier: 1
Perpendicular style tower, barrel roof, south transept
1887 - 1887
Period Qualifier: 1
Restoration
Nave
Interior
Interior Description
The interior of the church is approached through the south doorway which is Transitional Normal, with one order of colonettes and a segmental arch with a hood-mould originally with small heads at the ends. The stones are left unplastered round the windows, arches and doorways. The nave roof has embattled wall-plates and is ceiled with a plaster vault divided into roughly square panels by thin moulded ribs typical of the West Country. These are doubled in number, making squares a quarter of the size, and embellished with carved bosses, to form a ceilure just to the west of the chancel arch. The chancel arch has two recessed chamfered orders, probably of the fourteenth-century, rebuilt upon the plain square responds of an earlier, thicker arch, with narrow moulded capitals. The second order on the nave side once supported the outer order of the original thicker arch. The tower arch at the west end is nineteenth-century, with moulded arrisses and panelled responds and soffit. The floor is paved with red and black tiles and the pews stand on timber platforms. The arch to the south chapel is of the usual fifteenth-century type, with moulded capitals to shafts and hollows between. The roof is of plain waggon type with three purlins and two braces.
The chancel is two steps above the level of the nave and is dominated by a large painted reredos in an architectural frame. The shafts supporting the rere-arch of the east window appear to be old, and the arch itself is set back from the centres of them, indicating rebuilding at some later date. In the north wall there is a small plain seventeenth-century doorway to the vestry, and an arch opening into the organ chamber. In the south wall there is a small plain piscina with a curved head to the niche. The roof had a plaster vault with timber ribs similar to those elsewhere in the church.
Fixtures and fittings
Altar
The altar is Jacobean, much re-carved in the nineteenth century.
Window
14th Century Small 3-light C14th east window
Historical Notes
1300 - 1399
Period Qualifier: 2
Pulpit
c.1887
The pulpit is hexagonal, with blind panels of tracery in fourteenth century style, of oak.
Window
13th-14th Century Decorated style window on the South
Historical Notes
1200 - 1399
Period Qualifier: 2
Lectern
c.1920
The lectern is also of oak, with a quatrefoil stem of four shafts and two doves in foliage carved on the front of the desk.
Window
17th Century One C17th window to the South and two to the North of the nave
Historical Notes
1600 - 1699
Period Qualifier: 2
Font (object)
The font has a massive bowl with broad vertical flutings, set on a short circular stem and base. The conical cover is probably seventeenth century, the narrow divisions carved with foliage.
Rail
17th Century C17th rails in the transept
Historical Notes
1600 - 1699
Period Qualifier: 2
Reredos
19th Century Painted reredos after Francsca Francia by the sister of the Reverend W. A. Bell – 1893. E. Buckle
Historical Notes
1893 - 1893
Period Qualifier: 2
Churchyard
Grid reference: ST 238 378
Burial and War Grave Information
It is unknown whether the building is consecrated.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has been used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard is used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has war graves.
National Heritage record for England designations
Environment
Ancient, Veteran & Notable Trees
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
There are no records of Ancient, Veteran or Notable Trees within the curtilage of this site.
Renewables
| Renewable | Installed |
|---|---|
| Solar PV Panels | No |
| Solar Thermal Panels | No |
| Biomass | No |
| Wind Turbine | No |
| Air Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ground Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ev Charging | No |
Species summary
There are no records of species within the curtilage of this site.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
'Seek advice' Species
More information on species and action to be taken upon discovery.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
Further information
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