The Church of The Holy Saviour in

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 ...

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. It is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, an ...

as a designated 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 ...

, and is a

redundant church A redundant church, now referred to as a "closed church", is a church building that is no longer used for Christian worship. The term most frequently refers to former Anglican churches in the United Kingdom, but may also be used for disused churc ...

in the care of the

Churches Conservation Trust The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...

. It was

vested In law, vesting is the point in time when the rights and interests arising from legal ownership of a property is acquired by some person. Vesting creates an immediately secured right of present or future deployment. One has a vested right to an ...

in the Trust on 1 August 2002. It is a small, mostly unaltered

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

church, which was originally a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ea ...

to the Church of St Andrew in

Banwell Banwell is a village and civil parish on the River Banwell in the North Somerset district of Somerset, England. Its population was 2,919 according to the 2011 census. History Banwell Camp, east of the village, is a univallate hillfort which h ...

. It was consecrated in 1539. The leaning tower started to settle towards the southwest while being built, due to the

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...

y foundations which the church was built upon. This meant that the 15th century tower was never built as high as was intended. The church is externally

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 can ...

in style, with an earlier Saxo-Norman nave. The interior of the church is very light with a floor of irregular stone flags into which several ledger stones are set. The oak box pews on the north side of the nave are probably early 18th century, and the oak reading desk and pulpit are Jacobean, while 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 royal arms of 1751 are over the south door. The 1557 labelled shield of Sir John St Lo's achievement can be seen above the entrance door. The Seyntloo (aka St Loe) family are past owners of

Over Langford Manor Over Langford Manor, also known as The Old Courthouse (of the infamous Judge Jeffreys) is a Grade II listed building, in Upper Langford, North Somerset, England. The original east-west mediaeval farmhouse (late 15th century), now mostly demoli ...

. In June 2000 structural problems were found with the roof timbers, the building was closed for some time, and on 2 July 2002, the church was declared redundant by Order in Council.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Puxton, Saint Saviour 13th-century church buildings in England Church of England church buildings in North Somerset Grade I listed churches in Somerset Churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust English Gothic architecture in Somerset Grade I listed buildings in North Somerset Former churches in Somerset

See also

References