Parish Church of St Mary, Ilminster, Somerset

Description

ILMINSTER

ST3614 SILVER STREET
1939-1/7/116 (North side)
23/09/50 Parish Church of St Mary

GV I

Parish church. C15, refurbished 1825 by William Burgess;
chancel restored 1883; church partly restored 1887-9 and 1902.
Ham Hill stone and Moolham stone ashlar with some blue lias
limestone; lead roof. Cruciform plan with crossing tower and
east vestry. Perpendicular style.
EXTERIOR: String course below the castellated parapet which
has a moulded border to vestry, north sides of the chancel,
transepts, aisles, nave and south porch. All windows and
doors, unless mentioned, are pointed-arched with hoodmoulds;
windows have Perpendicular tracery. Offset buttresses are
diagonal to the tops, set-back at the corners, unless
otherwise mentioned. The vestry, attached to the east of the
chancel, below the east window, has a central door under a
hoodmould with carved shields in the spandrels; gargoyles to
the corners and above the door. The south side has a 2-light
window with cinquefoil heads under a hoodmould; the north has
a similar one-light window. The chancel has blue lias
limestone walls and buttresses and Ham Hill stone plinth,
parapet and dressings: 3-bays, with 3-light windows to the
sides and a 5-light to the east gable end, and gargoyles to
the corners, though that to the south-west has fallen. The
central bay on the north side has a door. The gable has a
cross-in-circle finial.
The north transept, the Wadham Chantry Chapel, is late C15 and
more ornate, with large windows articulated by
elaborately-decorated buttresses: 3-bays; the north window is
5-light, the mullions to the outer 2 lights curve outward to
the architrave to form pointed arches flanking a central
non-circular rose-like window of radiating dagger tracery;
Tudor-arched 3-light windows to the sides with transoms; the
lower lights have round arches with cinquefoil heads.
Buttresses have trefoil-headed panels to each section, with
bird-like sculptures to the central pair; the parapet has
teardrop-shaped panels containing shields and quatrefoils, and
square columns below the richly-crocketed finials and
continues above the north gable, with crocketed finials
flanking the window arch, and another at the apex.
The north aisle is 5-bays with slender 3-light windows. The
north porch is single-storey with diagonal buttresses. The
south transept is 2-bays with 3-light windows; the south
window has 5-lights with a transom; the gable has a pointed
string course, gargoyles, and a moulded cornice to the
shouldered parapet. The south aisle is 5-bays with slender
3-light windows without dripmoulds. The south porch is higher
than that to the north, with diagonal buttresses and a
pediment breaking through the cornice; the tympanum has 6
panels with cinquefoil cusping, and 6 similar long panels
below; the door has a crocketed ogee architrave. 3-bay nave
with 4-centred-arched clerestorey windows of 4-lights.
West front, dated 1824, has a shallow gable with a pointed
string course ending as gargoyles below a pointed shouldered
parapet to the gable end, in the apex of which is a gabled
niche; the central C20 door in a moulded arch is below a
5-light stained-glass window with cusped ogee arches to each
light and tracery above; this is set in a casement-moulded
arch with a run-out dripmould; the buttresses, which change to
diagonal at springer-level, have recessed trefoil-head panels
at parapet-level. The aisles have similar 3-light windows in
casement moulding but without dripmoulds; sloping string
courses terminate as gargoyles, below the castellated parapet.
The tower rises 2 storeys above the nave, 3 bays, with a stair
turret to the north-west corner: bays are articulated by
slender buttresses with crocketed finials above the
castellated parapet; each bay on both stages contains a tall
2-light mullioned-and-transomed window with tracery; lights to
the top are filled with pierced stone-work, those to the base
are solid; the stair turret has string courses coinciding with
those on the tower, and a spirelet with a weathervane.
INTERIOR: The chancel: window arches have deep casement
moulding; the east window has 5 lights with geometric tracery
and C19 stained glass, above an elaborate c1910 reredos of
Caen stone flanked by doors to the vestry; the 3 bays are
articulated by engaged columns on which stand wooden figures
supporting the carved main rafters, between which are moulded
trusses with fretted infill; the ridge, main rafters and
purlins are also moulded and the wall-plate is brattished; the
floor, early C19, is of coloured marble in a bold geometrical
design. The arches to the central crossing, below the tower,
have trefoil-headed panels; at the corners are shafted columns
with round capitals supporting trefoil fan-vaulting, and large
squints to each side. The south transept, called the Lady
Chapel, is simple, the main feature being the Walrond tomb;
this is in the south-east corner dated 1553, pedimented, with
3 large circles at the angles containing coats-of-arms, above
a large panel with the Walrond crest flanked by realistically
carved skulls; the base has 4 pilasters on a plinth. The nave
arcade, altered in 1825, has 3 widely-set Tudor-style arches
supported by the original piers with round capitals to engaged
colonnettes. The clerestory has 4-light windows with similar
arches, each light having a cinquefoil head. The C19 roof has
6 bays; corbels, supporting C19 trusses, rest on colonnettes
with C15 head-stops to the bases between the arches. The c1900
oak-fronted organ loft and choir gallery to the west has
billeted and foliate mouldings to the base and open-fretted
panels to the top; 4 canopied niches contain carved wooden
statues.
The north transept, called The Wadham Chapel or St Catherine's
Chapel, is separated from the crossing by a Jacobean panelled
wooden screen with a double row of bobbin balusters and thin
metal spikes to the top. The roof is similar to, but more
richly carved than, that of the chancel. The principle
features are the Wadham tombs; those of Sir William Wadham and
his mother, dated 1452 and Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham 1609
and 1618. The former is an altar-tomb, with a slab of Purbeck
marble approx 3m long, bearing fine brasses of canopies,
figures and inscriptions, on a plinth surrounded by crocketed
ogee-headed niches for weepers; the west end has a damaged
tableau of Christ in glory flanked by Sir William and his
mother. He is reputed to be the builder of this transept and
the tower. The latter tomb, in the north-east corner, is of
alabaster and marble. Above a slab of black marble bearing
brasses and inscriptions is a kind of reredos bearing an
escutcheon of their arms and a laudatory Latin inscription.
FURNISHINGS: St Catherine's Chapel has a notable 20-branch
candelabra. Other furnishings include 2 polished 8-branched
candelabra with inscriptions: "The gift of Will Raw,
Tho.Bayley fecit 1762" - these would seem to be cut down from
5 similar ones recorded in 1904. The pulpit is part of a
larger Jacobean one; C19 brass lecturn; the organ was brought
from St Mary Redcliffe in Bristol in the C19; there are 2 oak
chests, probably C16 or C17 with strap hinges, at the east end
of the nave. Mid/late C19 stained glass.
(Street J: The Mynster on the Ile: Taunton: 1904-: 317-342;
Buildings of England: Pevsner N: South and West Somerset:
London: 1958-: 207-8; Colvin H: A Biographical Dictionary of
British Architects: London: 1600-1840: 157).

Listing NGR: ST3601714575

External Links

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British Listed Buildings

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Parish Church of St Mary

A Grade I Listed Building in Ilminster, Somerset

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