The Anglican Church of St Andrew in

Congresbury Congresbury is a village and civil parish on the northwestern slopes of the Mendip Hills in North Somerset, England, which in 2011 had a population of 3,497. It lies on the A370 between Junction 21 of the M5 and Bristol Airport, south of Bri ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, England dates from the 13th century and has been designated as a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. Congresbury is named after St Congar, who is said to have performed three miracles in the area. The second part of the name is thought to come from ''burh'' meaning fortified place. The archaeologist

Mick Aston Michael Antony Aston (1 July 1946 – 24 June 2013) was an English archaeologist who specialised in Early Medieval landscape archaeology. Over the course of his career, he lectured at both the University of Bristol and University of Oxford an ...

identified an Anglo-Saxon sculpture of St Congar which is believed to have come from St Andrews Church, and which is now in the

Museum of Somerset The Museum of Somerset is located in the 12th-century great hall of Taunton Castle, in Taunton in the county of Somerset, England. The museum is run by South West Heritage Trust, an independent charity, and includes objects initially collected ...

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...

. The present church was consecrated by Bishop

Jocelin of Wells Jocelin of Wells (died 19 November 1242) was a medieval Bishop of Bath (and Glastonbury). He was the brother of Hugh de Wells, who became Bishop of Lincoln. Jocelin became a canon of Wells Cathedral before 1200, and was elected bishop in 120 ...

on 11 July 1215. The church was remodelled in the 15th century, in a

Perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It ca ...

style; further restorations followed in 1825, 1856 and 1950–2. The

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

includes pillars with decorated stone corbels supporting the wooden roof timbers and carved bosses. The organ, which was rebuilt in 1967 is in the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

. The Merle chapel was formerly known as the Chapel of St Congar. The font is

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

. The tower is surmounted by a spire which rises to . The Tower contains a heavy ring of 8 Bells, the Tenor (the biggest bell) weighing 3812 lb or 1729 kg and it strikes the note of C. The oldest bells date back to 1606 and were cast by George Purdue. The parish is part of the benefice of Congresbury with

Puxton Puxton is a village and civil parish, north west of Axbridge in the unitary authority of North Somerset within the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. The civil parish includes the isolated hamlets of East Hewish and West Hewish. History ...

and Hewish St Ann within the deanery of Locking.

References

External links

St Andrew's Church web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Andrews Church, Congresbury

Congresbury, Church of St Andrew Congresbury, Church of St Andrew Churches completed in 1215 13th-century church buildings in England

See also

References

External links