Description

CASTLE CARY CP CHURCH STREET (West side)
ST6332
5/49 Church of All Saints
24.3.61
GV II*
Anglican Parish Church. Saxon origins, main church c1470, heavily restored by Benjamin Ferrey 1851-1855. Tower of Cary
stone cut and squared, remainder lias stone cut and squared with Doulting stone dressings; Welsh slate and sheet lead
roofs behind battlemented parapets. Six-cell plan of 3-bay chancel, 5-bay nave, north and south aisles, and north and
south transepts; additional north-east corner vestry, north and south porches, and west tower with spire. Chancel has
double plinth, angled corner and bay buttresses; east window a 4-light C19 version of C15 tracery under arched label
with headstops; to south a 3-light C15 traceried window set in hollowed pointed-arch recess without label, and to north
similar window partly obscured by vestry; this generally matches but has plain parapet, and in its north wall a 3-light
traceried flat-arched window with moulded arched doorway to west, both without labels. Nave visible as the clerestorey,
with 3-light C15 traceried windows in 4-centre arched hollowed recesses without labels. North transept and north aisle
of C19 character, with bay buttresses, and angled corner buttresses to transept; 3-light C19 versions of the nave
windows in north walls; in west wall a 2-light window to match. North porch totally C19; simple C15 style outer arch
with empty canopied statue niche over, and pointed moulded inner arch, with inner doorway in south-east corner to
octagonal stair turret leading to parvise. South aisle and transept to match, but the aisle incorporates older work;
south porch of ashlar, 2 storeys, with corner buttresses with gargoyles at head, battlemented parapet; C15 style outer
arch and moulded pointed inner arch with a possibly C15 door; first floor reached by north-east octagonal stair turret,
and has 2 C14 style small traceried windows without labels flanking a canopied statue niche in which is set a medieval
wooden figure. Tower in 3 stages, with low bottom stage; offset corner buttresses ending in crocketted pinnacles;
double plinth, string courses, open-traceried battlemented parapets with gargoyles under; tall spire with carved middle
band and weathervane finial, having crocketted and pinnacled gablets at bases of principal faces to small windows;
south-east corner has octagonal stair turret with stepped stone roof 2 stages high: bottom stage plain: stage 2 has a
4-light C19 traceried west window in a C15 style with pointed arched label, with a thin lancet window set above; on
north and south faces are single- light cusped rectangular windows; to stage 3 all round are 2-light C15 style
traceried windows with diagonal traceried stone baffles under stilted arched labels extended as an additional string
course; clock faces to north and south. Inside, chancel mostly C19 and C20, with double arch-truss traceried roof
frame; traceried reredos, and ogee arched doorway to vestry; arches to transepts and nave C15 style, but probably
recut. Nave has C15 arcade with 4-shaft and hollow columns, but roof is a C19 traceried king-post type. Aisles have
moulded rib-and-panel ceilings, probably all C19 work. Tower arch very tall, plain double chamfered; corbel offsets to
tracery-panelled timber roof. Fittings include a C15 style timber pulpit, almost totally C19 but possibly with some
original fragments; C15 octagonal font with double quatrefoil panels each face of bowl, foilage carved coving and
traceried panelled shaft. Several C17 Keinton stone slab memorials in nave floor nicely incised, and four C18 marble
plaque memorials in tower. Stained glass in east window by O'Connor, 1855, and in west window by Powell and Sons, 1864.
First recorded rector 1269. (Pevsner N, Buildings of England, South and Vest Somerset, 1958).

Listing NGR: ST6391632055

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Church of All Saints, Castle Cary at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q15978944

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

• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)