The Church of St Peter in

Marksbury Marksbury is a small village and civil parish on the eastern edge of the affluent Chew Valley in Somerset, about from Keynsham and from Bath on the A39 where it meets the A368. The parish, which includes the villages of Hunstrete and Stant ...

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 12th century, although most of the current fabric is from the 15th century and is a Grade II*

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 ...

. The nave has two 2-light windows under

hood mould In architecture, a hood mould, hood, label mould (from Latin ''labia'', lip), drip mould or dripstone, is an external moulded projection from a wall over an opening to throw off rainwater, historically often in form of a ''pediment''. This mouldin ...

s flanking a blocked, moulded round-headed door under a plaque dated 1627. The

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...

ed, off-centre

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. Ove ...

, which is out of line with the nave, has a three-light east window from 1875, which was also when the chancel arch and chancel roof were replaced. The organ chamber was built in 1893. The altar is a Jacobean oak table by Francis Leyborne Popham who died in 1880. A second altar table, which was previously in the church at

Stanton Prior Stanton Prior is a small village within the civil parish of Marksbury, set in Duchy of Cornwall countryside between Newton St Loe and Marksbury, west from the UK city of Bath, Somerset. Stanton Prior derives its name from the Old English 'S ...

, was placed in the tower. The

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

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 three stage tower is supported by diagonal

es to the first stage, a canted stair

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

in the return of tower and nave and a very small west door with a canted flat arch under a two-light,

chamfer A chamfer or is a transitional edge between two faces of an object. Sometimes defined as a form of bevel, it is often created at a 45° angle between two adjoining right-angled faces. Chamfers are frequently used in machining, carpentry, fu ...

mullion window A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

dating from 1634. The second stage has a cusped two-light window with heavy louvres to the north, a blocked single light to the east and two-light chamfered, vaguely pointed windows south and west. The third stage has one large, round headed window with raised

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; from it, architrave "chief beam", also called an epistyle; from Greek ἐπίστυλον ''epistylon'' "door frame") is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can ...

and louvres on each side, thin, embattled

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

dominated by four pyramidal

pinnacle A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was mainly ...

s with vanes. The spikes above the tower angles were added in the 18th century. The four bells in the tower in 1782 were sent to the

Bilbie family The Bilbie family were bell founders and clockmakers based initially in Chew Stoke, Somerset and later at Cullompton, Devon in south-west England from the late 17th century to the early 19th century. Their importance to the local economy and in ...

Chew Stoke Chew Stoke is a small village and civil parish in the affluent Chew Valley, in Somerset, England, about south of Bristol and 10 miles north of Wells. It is at the northern edge of the Mendip Hills, a region designated by the United Kingdom as ...

to be recast and additional metal added to make a set of six bells. The tenor bell was cracked in 1820 and recast in London. In the early 20th century a new roof was put on the tower and the bells rehung. There are several monuments in the chancel including those to Counsell, 1671, and Wadden, 1682. In the nave is a monument to Boulter 1782, by Brewer of

Box A box (plural: boxes) is a container used for the storage or transportation of its contents. Most boxes have flat, parallel, rectangular sides. Boxes can be very small (like a matchbox) or very large (like a shipping box for furniture), and can ...

. Reverend William Counsell was the rector (1662–74). Francis Popham, of

Littlecote House Littlecote House is a large Elizabethan country house and estate in the civil parishes of Ramsbury and Chilton Foliat, in the English county of Wiltshire, about northeast of the Berkshire town of Hungerford. The estate includes 34 hectares of hi ...

, died at

Hunstrete Hunstrete () is a small village on the River Chew in the Chew Valley, Bath and North East Somerset, England. It falls within the civil parish of Marksbury and is from Bristol, and Bath, and from Keynsham. History The origin of the name Hu ...

House in 1779 and was buried in the chancel of the church. One of the stained glass windows is a memorial to a local resident who lost her life in

Great Flood of 1968 The Great Flood of 1968 was a flood caused by a pronounced trough of low pressure which brought exceptionally heavy rain and thunderstorms to South East England and France in mid-September 1968, with the worst on Sunday 15 September 1968, and fol ...

when the

River Chew The River Chew is a small river in England that flows for some through the North Somerset countryside to form the Chew Valley before merging with the River Avon. The spring from which the Chew rises is just upstream from Chewton Mendip. The ...

flooded. An unidentified monument in the churchyard is also listed by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

Joseph Harding Joseph Harding (22 March 1805 in Sturton Farm, Wanstrow, Somerset, England – 1 May 1876 in Vale Court Farm, Marksbury, Somerset) was responsible for the introduction of modern cheese making techniques and has been described as the "fath ...

who was responsible for the introduction of modern cheese making techniques and has been described as the "father of

Cheddar cheese Cheddar cheese (or simply cheddar) is a natural cheese that is relatively hard, off-white (or orange if colourings such as annatto are added), and sometimes sharp-tasting. Cheddar originates from the English village of Cheddar in Somerset. Ched ...

" is buried in the churchyard and there is a memorial plaque to his memory in the nave which was moved from the Methodist chapel.Joseph Harding, Cheddar Cheese-Maker written by Ann Heeley and Mary Vidal. Published by the Friends of the Abbey Barn, Glastonbury 1996

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marksbury, Church Of St Peter Church of England church buildings in Bath and North East Somerset Grade II* listed churches in Somerset Grade II* listed buildings in Bath and North East Somerset

See also

References