Description

COMPTON VALENCE
SY 59 SE COMPTON VALENCE VILLAGE

5/22 Church of St Thomas of
Canterbury
26-1-56

GV II *

Parish Church. West Tower, C15. Rest of church entirely rebuilt in 1838-9
using C14 Gothic features by Benjamin Ferrey, at expense of Robert Williams
of Bridehead. West Tower, Nave with north aisle and south porch, chancel
with polygonal sanctuary, north vestry. Crypt under chancel. Greensand
rubble walls, with lias stone buttresses and window dressings. Stone slate
roofs. Tower roof of lead. West tower, with diagonal buttresses, two stages,
with an embattled parapet and C19 stair turret on the north side. West window
of 2 trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil in a two-centred head label and head-
stops, mullion and tracery renewed. Bell-chamber has in each wall a window
of 2 trefoiled lights in a square head, the lights are filled with pierced
quatrefoils. Nave of 4 bays, divided by very massive buttresses in 2 stages
3 windows, each of 2 ogee-trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil in a 2-centred
head with a label. North aisle has 4 windows, each of one ogee-trefoiled
light. South porch has diagonal buttresses and a south gable with moulded
kneelers, coping and foiled apex-stone. The outer archway has moulded jambs
and a moulded 2-centred head. Niche in the wall above with trefoiled head.
Porch has a sexpartite stone ribbed vault. Chancel has a 3-sided sanctuary,
containing in each face a 3-light window with tracery in a 3-centred head.
Buttresses between with gable-shaped weatherings. Moulded cornice is enriched
with ball-flower. North vestry, has in the east wall a window of 2 trefoiled
lights in a square head, doorway in the north wall. Interior: tower has C19
tower-arch, and a C19 ribbed vault with central boss carved with an angel.
Nave arcade has depressed 2-centred arches, main hollow-chamfer moulding continued
down the piers. Chancel has a sexpartite ribbed vault, springing from carved
and moulded corbels, at the east end the wall-ribs form window rere-arches.
Roofs of nave and aisle are wood, C19. Fittings: font, octagonal bowl with
splayed underside with paterae, octagonal stem and concave plinth decorated
with small shields, C15. Pulpit: stone, 5-sided on a flared stem, each face
panelled, C19. Reredos, stone, 3 panels with cinquefoil cusping and foliated
gablets, Communion prayers. Benches, complete set, oak with simple poppy-heads,
C19. Monuments : N. wall, to Ann (Chappell) wife of Samuel Best, 1740, stone
with flanking lonic pilasters, architrave and broken pediment.
(R.C.H.M. Dorset I, p.l04 (1); Newman and Pevsner, Dorset, p.160)

Listing NGR: SY5928793247

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17542899

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

• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)