Description

1.
5120 CHURCH SQUARE
Midsomer-Norton
Parish Church of
St John the Baptist
ST 6654 4/21 19.5.50
II*
2.
C15 west tower (upper stages C17). Perpendicular style. Aisled nave of 1830
and C20 chancel and Lady Chapel. Five bay aisled nave, architect John Pinch
of Bath for the Rev. Augustus Asgill Colville. Ashlar built with crenellated
parapet and crocketted finials over weathered buttresses. Tall 3 light Perpendicular
style windows. Projecting porch in 2nd bay from left with crocketted corner
finials, Gothick rainwater heads, Gothick plaster vault and Gothick panelled
doors.
Three stage west tower, lower stage probably C15 freestone, upper stages C17
ashlar. Set back buttresses to lower 2 stages, capped by diagonal finials.
Upper stage has 3 light segmental headed windows with a form of Somerset tracery.
High parapet with moulded coping and crocketted corner and centre finials on
panelled dies. Niche on 2nd stage contains a statue of Charles II who donated
3 of the 8 bells. Plain 2 bay chancel, added 1924, with Perpendicular style
tracery, 2 buttresses at east end arched over path. The Lady Chapel added
to south 1936, with niche at east end for statue of Virgin with canopied screen.
Note that Pinch's north aisle wall has a cusp headed niche with ogee label
on it too.
Interior: tall slender arcades, formerly with Galleries (c.f St Mary's Bathwick
in Bath). Panelled ceilings with enriched floral bosses, corbelled braces
with openwork tracery. Blind tracery ogee pattern vault in chancel. Norman
font: plain chalice-type with scallop band below rim. A number of C19 fittings,
including pulpit, retained. In the tower, remains of a C13 wooden effigy of
a knight. A number of memorials especially on north wall: parents of Charles
Harbard, dated 1678, broken segmental pediment with Ionic pilasters on angel
busts and with swagged sides. A number of others, particularly on north-west
wall, to John Smith, died 1829; an urn with a putto. Several memorials of
the Savage family (of Norton Hall) especially 2 C18 ones and 2 Gothick ones.
The Churchyard rises well above street level and retains a number of mostly
early C19 headstones, 11 chest tombs, mostly C18 and early C19 and one square
altar tomb with draped urn capping (for Millard family, about 1728-29). This
church has a number of affinities with St Mary's Bathwick in Bath, also by
Pinch. A number of features belonging to the church he rebuilt are to be found
at No 83 (Vicarage) North Road and No 37 Priory Close.
To west is a low early C19 chest tomb on 6 metal balls (one missing). To
south-west the famous memorial to the 12 miners killed in 1839 when their rope
was severed; the slab covering this was renewed in 1965.

Listing NGR: ST6626054191

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Church of St John the Baptist, Midsomer Norton at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q5117449

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)