Description

ST 47 SE WRAXALL WRAXALL HILL (west side)

3/204 CHURCH OF ALL SAINTS
11.10.61
G.V. I

Parish Church (Anglican). C12, altered and enlarged early - mid C13 and late
C14; restored 1851 and 1893 by Sir Arthur Blomfield. West tower; nave; north
aisle and chapel; south porch and chapel; chancel. Ashlar and coursed rubble
with freestone dressings; slate and lead roofs with coped raised verges and
behind plain parapets. West tower: banded stone of 2 colours; 4 stages,
diagonal buttresses with off-sets; blank arcaded parapet with an image niche in
the centre of each side; square corner pinnacles surmounted by smaller pinnacles;
polygonal stair turret to north-east; 2-light windows in 2 tiers, string course
which rises to form a headmould; 2-light west window, image niche with ogee
head; moulded west doorway. Nave and south chapel: three 3-light Perpendicular
style windows with cusped tracery and square hoodmoulds; buttresses with off-
sets; sanctus bell-cote over east gable. South porch: square projecting porch,
diagonal buttresses with off-sets; pointed doorway of 2 orders, stiff-leaf
capitals to the columns (restored); dripmould with carved head stops; single
light lancets on first floor; sundial in centre of parapet; decorative wrought-
iron gate. Chancel: pointed priest's door has an inner roll moulding with
head stops, outer hoodmould also with head stops; two 2-light Perpendicular
style windows with cusped tracery, square heads and dripmoulds; 5-light C19
Perpendicular style east window. North aisle: three 3-light Perpendicular
style windows, as the south side; projecting polygonal rood stair turret;
pointed north door with outer roll moulding, hood mould with carved stops.
South doorway is C12, columns with scalloped capitals; pointed and chamfered
doorways to stairs to first floor room. Interior. Nave has 4 bay arcades, the
piers consist of alternating engaged columns and hollow mouldings and have
moulded capitals and abaci. Tower arch of continuous double hollow and ogee
moulding; chancel arch of continuous hollow and roll moulding. The nave and
north aisle roofs are C19, but rest on a good collection of C14 and C15 carved
corbel heads. Former doorways to rood stair have chamfered surrounds and 4-
centred heads; 4-centre headed doorway to upper room of porch to west of south
door. South chapel is reached through a tall 4-centred arch of hollow and wave
mouldings; 2 piscinae with ogee and trefoil head. The chancel is mostly late
C19 by Blomfield: 5-bay arch-braced collar beam roof with cusped windbracing.
The pulpit, lectern, organ and benches are also mid - late C19, in a Perpendicular
style; the screens are by Blomfield and particularly well carved. Font. C15,
octagonal, ashlar, with 2 blank arches on each side; on the pier adjoining the
font is a stone book-rest supported on a demi-figure of an angel. Glass: a
good collection of glass by C.E. Kempe from 1896, donated by the first Lord
Wraxall; in the room above the porch is a late C15 lancet representing the Five
Wounds, on a shield held by an angel. Monuments. Chancel: early C16 tomb
chest to Sir Edmund and Lady Gorges in armour and robes with a finely carved
front of heraldry flanked by angels; simple inscribed marble plaque to Thomas
Holt, died 1687. South chapel: Charles Brent, died 1729 and Margarita Coopey,
died 1744, aedicular marble tablets, flanked by pilasters with friezes. Nave:
John Lucas, died 1817, marble by Tyley, 2 parents stand by an urn. North aisle:
L. Lucas, died 1807, marble seated figure against a curved pedestal; W. King,
died 1792, marble plaque with an urn. George and Henry Seymour, 1827, marble
and freestone, gothic inscribed plaques with gabled canopies. The church is
prominently situated and is a fine landmark with excellent details of
Perpendicular style architecture (both mediaeval and late C19 by Blomfield).
(N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England : North Somerset and Bristol, 1958). .

Listing NGR: ST4902471971

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• All Saints Church, Wraxall at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q4729545

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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