Description

ST52SE WEST CAMEL CP

4/136 Church of All Saints

19.4.61

GV I

Church. Late C14 with earlier fragments. Local stone, random coursed, Ham stone dressings; mostly lead roofs, but plain clay tiles to chancel and stone slates to North transept; coped gables with finials; lead covered spirelet. Cruciform plan with 2-bay chancel and 3-bay nave, with tower instead of a South transept. Chancel has slight plinth and angled corner buttresses; East window has reticulated tracery, the North and South windows are 2-light cusped lancets with Quatrefoil over, with arched hoods and relieving arches; small simple door and squint on South side. North transept has part buttresses to corners and centre of North wall; Eastern 3-light window in 4-centre arch with C15 tracery and in North wall very small 2-light window with C15 tracery very rural in character. Nave has bay buttresses of 3 different heights; a wide 2-centre arched 3-light window with C15 tracery set in a recess on the North side, a cusped lancet and Quatrefoil and a large 3-light window with wide pointed arch and C15 tracery on the South; the West window a simple 3-light window of C15 with head bosses in the pointed label, there being a simple segmental arched doorway under. The South porch of C19, projecting a plain segmental arched doorway into the church. Crenellated parapet to South side of nave; to North a low parapet with bases for pinnacle finials. Tower simple, bulging towards base, in 3 stages denoted by slit windows on the South side and a string course below bellchamber; corbel table to low parapet with gargoyles; lead sheathed spirelet with weathervane; bellchamber windows on all 4 sides with C13 tracery and wood baffles. Internally the chancel has a C19 arch and arched rib ceiling to collar trussed rafters, the East window set in a depressed trefoil rere-arch, flanked by 2 lancet niches and with stone apron panel - possibly parts of an early reredos; sedelia and 2 piscinae, one each side, of C13; long squint from North transept. North Transept arch of 2-orders has corbel shaft to bell capitals; timber ribbed and bossed segmental barrel vault ceiling. South transept arch of 2-orders with no capitals, the mouldings carried down the jambs. Nave roof a 5-bay medieval king-post truss with tracery infill panels, having heavily moulded beams and principal rafters and bold Tudor rose central bosses, elaborate wall plate and angel brackets at each mid-bay, all with modern gold leaf and colouring. Fittings include a curved pulpit front in C13 style, shown in different position in a pre-restoration sketch of the church; a circular lead-lined font, probably C12, with intersecting arch decoration, on modern base; and in the North transept two C14 bench ends; 2 chests, one possibly C15 and the other C17; and set into middle of floor fragment of a C9 Saxon cross-shaft with cable-roll interlaced decoration on 2 faces, discovered above nave East wall foundations in 1866. In tower 5 bells, the earliest of C15. Monuments include: pedimented plaque, Revd. M. Hill, died 1744; a brass tablet to Revd. J. Hinkesman, died 1746; plaque with draped urn, E. Aubrery, died 1786, by T. King of Bath; marble plaque with urn, Crowbrow family, died from 1796, by Fishers of York. Little known of early history; few certain dates, including addition of spirelet in 1631, rebuilding of chancel arch 1847, and some restoration for Revd. W.L. Metcalf by Ewan Christian in 1866; a church of much interest and variety, albeit sole being of rather rural character. (Pooley, Old Crosses of Somerset, 1877; SANHS proceedings, Volumes 36, 59 and 105).

Listing NGR: ST5802824625

External Links

• Church of All Saints, West Camel at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q5116814

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

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  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
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  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
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  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
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  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)