Details
SY 49 SW SYMONDSBURY SYMONDSBURY VILLAGE
6/142 Symondsbury Parish
5.9.60 Church (St John the
Baptist)
G.V. I
Church. C14 with C15 porch, c C17 chancel, C20 north vestry. Nave without
aisles, crossing and tower, north and south transepts, chancel, south porch,
vestry. Lias rubble-stone with ashlar dressings, slate roofs with stone
slates at the eaves. Nave, C14 with C15 window insertions to south wall.
Blocked c C14 2-centred window at west end. C15 windows of 3 lights with
super mullions and renewed tracery. Labels with head stops C15. South porch,
C15, pointed archway with conventional responds. Embattled parapet with large
diagonally set gargoyles. Diagonal buttresses. South transept with 4-light
C19 window with Y-tracery. Short C20 buttresses. Central Tower: 3 stages
with embattled parapet and gargoyles. 2nd stage with small single lights with
trefoil heads. Bell-stage has two trefoiled lights in a square head with a
label and returned stops. String-courses and embattled parapet with gargoyles.
Chancel: main fabric is c C17 rebuilt with a re-set C15 east window, with
renewed mullions. 2 C17 Perpendicular style windows in south wall. Doorway
with chamfered jambs and pointed head. Re-set trefoiled head above it,
perhaps C14. Interior: Nave, unplastered. Roof, segmental waggon-type,
bossed at the intersections, C15. Line of former roof visible on the east
wall. Door of wide planks, studded, C17, from porch. Doorway in east wall of
nave above crossing-arch, led from rood loft to tower End stage. Crossing with
C14 pointed arches of two continuous chamfered orders (East and West). North
and south arches to transepts have moulded imposts and bases. Massive corbelling
within the crossing carrying pointed arches, which support 2nd stage. Roofs of
transepts and chancel, plastered waggon roofs with moulded wall plates. Squints
from both transepts into chancel External features: south transept gable:
panel with a re-set consecration cross. Stone gable copings with cross-heads
over. External stair to tower between nave and north transept. Internal
fittings: pulpit, wood, hexagonal with plain fielded panels, C18. Communion
rails forming a square enclosure, turned posts, balusters and moulded top-rail
ramped at corners, c 1730. Monuments: tablets in both transepts late 018 and
C19. Font: stone bowl with 4 marbled colonettes with stiff-leaf capitals,
C19. Flagstones throughout nave and crossing. Choir stalls, early C20 with
medallion-heads to stalls: carved in wood, naturalistic leaves, fish, fruit,
animals. "RCHM, Dorset I", p 236 (1).
Listing NGR: SY4450693627
