Description

ST54NW WOOKEY CP HIGH STREET (South side)

21/163 Church of St Matthew
22.11.66

GV I

Anglican Parish Church. C12 establishment, late C13 chancel, remainder C14-early C15, except C16 chapel; restored 1872
by Giles and Gane, C20 vestry. Coursed and squared rubble, freestone dressings, coped verges, cruciform finials, slate
and lead-sheeting roofs, ashlar stack. Nave, chancel, north and south aisles, south chapel, south porch, north vestry,
west tower. Perpendicular. Three-stage tower, diagonal buttresses, pinnacles, embattled parapet, polygonal stair-turret
with a stone spirelet; 2-light bell-chamber windows with a quatrefoil interlace, clock; 4-light west window, west door.
Three bay nave cum aisles, 2-light windows, buttresses; lofty porch, moulded inner and outer door openings, benched
interior on flagstone floor, wooden dog gates, C15 roof. Three bay chapel with large 4-light square-headed window of
1423 and 2 pointed head windows, 3-light west window. Two bay chancel, 3-light east window, stepped cusped lancet
lights. Simple vestry in neo-Perpendicular style. Plastered interior on flagstone and encaustic tile floors. Nave with
cusped kingpost roof, restored C19 though some earlier work remains, corbels; aisles with restored lean-to roofs,
though again earlier work may remain; nave and chapel with C19 wagon roofs. Tower arch and chancel arch have the same
double-quadrant moulding; the same moulding also in the 3 bay north arcade; 3-bay south arcade C15; C16 arches to south
chapel. Restored C13 font; 2 hagioscopes; rood stair; 3 piscinae. Two C17 chests; table incorporating remains of C17
altar rail; altar rail of 1635; altar table of c1635; C19 pulpit incorporating Jacobean remains. C18 chest and coffin
stools. C19 pews, tester, choir stalls, altar rails and reredos. Principal monument a Perpendicular chest to Thomas
Clarke, obit 1555, for whom the south chapel may have been built; many good C17/C18 monuments. C19 charity plaque. Much
late C19 stained glass and some good C20 work; north chancel window with fragmentary medieval work. Early bells. C17
bible in glazed case. Organ loft under tower with Art Nouveau gesso plaque. Royal Arms dated 1837. (Pevsner, Buildings
of England, North Somerset and Bristol, 1958; The Architect, April 27, 1872).

Listing NGR: ST5185245792

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Church of St Matthew, Wookey at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q5117611

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

• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Northumberland (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)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]