Description

CORTON DENHAM

387/1/53 CHURCH OF ST ANDREW
15-FEB-85

II
Parish church. Rebuilt 1869-70 to design of Charles Baker-Green.
MATERIALS: Hamstone ashlar with plain clay tile roofs mostly between coped gables, but with hipped chevet to the east end.
PLAN: Mostly in an early C15 style. It has a three-cell plan with additions; comprising a one and a half bay chancel, four bay nave and north aisle, with north east vestry, south porch and west tower.
EXTERIOR: The chancel is built into the hillside. It has a plinth, with offset buttresses to each chamfered angle. There is a panelled parapet and ornamental clay tile ridge and wrought iron cross finial to the roof. There are cusped single lancet windows with arched headstops to north east and south east chamfers, and two-light early C15 traceried style windows with labels to north, east and south faces of the chevet. There are similar two-light window and bay buttresses to nave which has a plain eaves band course. The south porch to bay two has a simple hollow moulded pointed arch; the north east vestry has a cusped lancet east window and simple north door. The north aisle has small cusped lancets with pointed arched labels with headstops between offset bay buttresses, a two-light west
window, and a simple west door. The tower is in three stages, with plinth, diagonal offset corner buttrusses two stages high, string courses, and a battlemented parapet with corner finials. There is an octagonal, plain, full height stair turret to the north east corner, taller than tower, with an outer door at the base. The west door, up two steps, is set within a pointed-arched opening under square stopped label with quatrefoils in spandrils; above, is a three-light C15 style window. The other faces are plain to this stage: to stage two, two-light transomed C15 pointed arched windows to north, west and south faces; similar windows without transomes to all faces of stage three, fitted with pierced stone baffles.
INTERIOR: has unplastered ashlar throughout. The nave has arched rib ceiling and C15 style arcade. There is a hollowed wide chancel arch and a panelled vaulted timber roof to the chancel. The furnishings are simply detailed and include an octagonal stone pulpit with richly carved panels, and a matching small octagonal font with black marble shafts to the corners. Sited in a floor pit in the nave, and covered by cast iron, lattice pattern floor gratings, is a cast iron warm air heating stove, complete with its combustion chamber. It was manufactured by H.B. and H. Petter of Yeovil. In addition there is some painted and stencil decoration about the church.
HISTORY: There has been a church in Corton Denham probably since the C12, although the present church was built in 1869-70. Its construction was financed by Edward Berkley Portman, Viscount Portman.
SOURCES: http://www.hevac-heritage.org/homepage.htm
C R J Currie, R W Dunning (Editors), A P Baggs, M C Siraut, A History of the County of Somerset (1999), vol 7, pp 101-08
REASON FOR DESIGNATION: The Church of St Andrew is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* It survives relatively unaltered and is a balanced, single-phase composition
* The quality of its architectural detailing, both externally and internally
* The church furniture is of good design
* The survival of a contemporary heating stove adds to the building's interest

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Church of St Andrew at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q26647963

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

• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)