Description

ST44NE WESTBURY-SUB-MENDIP CP WELLS ROAD (South side)

9/154 Church of St Lawrence
22.11.66

GV II*

Anglican Parish Church. C12, C13, C15; restored 1887 with rebuilt tower. Coursed and squared rubble and some ashlar,
freestone dressings, coped verges, cruciform finials, tile and lead sheeting roofs. Nave, chancel, south aisle, south
transept, south porch, north organ chamber with vestry, west tower. Perpendicular. Severe unbuttressed 2-stage tower,
2-light bell-chamber windows, polygonal stair turret, clock; embattled parapet with corner pinnacles, may be re-used
from earlier tower; west door opening incorporating earlier material. Three bay nave; blocked Norman north doorway,
very plain and not in its original state, detached polygonal shafts, cushion caps; 2 and 3-light windows. Three bay
aisle, buttresses, pierced parapet with trefoils in triangles, pinnacles, gargoyle; 3-light windows with elaborate
tracery, labels. Transept contiguous in a conforming style. Two-storeyed porch with a former upper chamber, diagonal
buttresses, pierced parapet, niche for former statue, now missing, moulded inner and outer door openings; inside
benched on tile floor, stoup, niche with canopy for former statue, now missing. Short single bay chancel, 2-light
Perpendicular window to south side, lancet to north side, late C13 east window of 2 lights with encircled quatrefoil in
plate tracery, foiled rere-arch. Plastered interior on tile and encaustic tile floors. Roofs appear all C19 on C13/C15
corbels carved as heads, wall shafts to outer wall of the aisle; some corbels may have been restored C19. Late Norman
tower arch of one order of columns, trumpet caps, one step arch. Three bay arcade to aisle, piers of 4 hollows
moulding; similar the arches to transept and chancel; C19 arch to organ chamber. C13 octagonal font. C13 piscina to
chancel. Perpendicular stone pulpit. Jacobean chest and chair. Late C19 pews, choir stalls, altar rails, brass lectern,
very large neo-Decorated reredos and organ. Earliest monument to George Rodnei (sic), obit 1587, forming a reredos to
transept, inscription plate in 4-centred arch, columns, entablature, no effigy. Wall monument dated 1615 behind organ;
C17 slab to floor; good pedimented wall monument to nave inscribed; "J Tuckey Wedmore Fecit 1779". Five principal C19
wall monuments by Bath and Bristol firms. Late C19 stained glass to east window. (Pevsner, Buildings of England, North
Somerset and Bristol, 1958).

Listing NGR: ST4996048704

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Church of St Lawrence at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17552660

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

• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)