History of St. Mary's
The parish church of St Mary the Virgin comprises a chancel with north vestry and south organ chamber, a nave with north tower and north and south aisles, and a west tower. Fragments of 14th-century vaulting recognised in the chancel walls are evidence for the style and date of an earlier building. A crypt below the western end of the chancel dates from the later 14th century and is probably contemporary with the north tower, indicating a substantial rebuilding for a prosperous and growing population. A second rebuilding involved the west tower, the nave, and the clerestory, probably in that order, over a period of c. 80 years until the 1520s. The tower is thought to have been designed and begun c. 1450 and to have been completed before 1490. The initials of Richard Bere, abbot of Glastonbury 1493-1525, and William Gilbert, prior and abbot of Bruton 1495-1532, and the mitre and dolphin of Bishop Richard Fitzjames (1505-22) are on the battlements of the northern clerestory, and the south aisle was evidently being rebuilt in 1517. The rebuilding of the nave involved an incursion into the chancel and the repositioning of screen and aisle chapels, that on the north dedicated to St. Catherine, on the south to Our Lady. The second, extended eastwards, probably became the Berkeley family pew.
The chancel was rebuilt in 1743 at the cost of Sir Charles Berkeley. Plastering the chancel arch and other work was carried out at the same time for the parish by Mr. Cartwright. The chancel seems to have been redecorated and refurnished in the later 18th century, and the north vestry was probably added. Work on the church in 1770 was later said to have been by Mr. Moulton, who was consulted by the parish in 1777. The church was reseated to the designs of James Wilson in 1842, incorporating 17th-century pew ends, and raked seats were built at the west end for children. The south entrance had by then been blocked. The church was extensively restored by R. H. Carpenter in 1872-7 when the north wall and clerestory were rebuilt and the south vestry extended eastwards to form an organ chamber. Additional seating was made for the choir but the childrens' seats were replaced by pews and the organ removed from the west tower gallery. Figures in the clerestory niches were added by Owen Thomas. The chancel screen of 1620, incorporating medieval material, was probably removed to the tower arch when the chancel was rebuilt. In 1783 it was incorporated into an organ gallery. The present screen was designed by Randall Blacking and built in 1938.
You can read more about St Mary's in our free Visitors' Guide, available in the church, and in a more detailed history, written by John Bishton and on sale in the church.
