The Church without dedication (also known as Church in the Field) at

Low Ham Low Ham is a village in the civil parish of High Ham in the English county of Somerset. At the time of the Domesday Book Low Ham was part of the estate of Serlo de Burcy, and was later known as Ham Burcy and Nether Ham. Roman villa There is e ...

in the parish of High Ham,

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 was formerly a private chapel to the manor. It stands on the site of an earlier church, and was started in the early 17th century, damaged in the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

, and completed in 1690. It 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 ...

History

The church was built around 1600, on the site of an earlier church, which was probably in existence in the 13th century, but may have been built by

Serlo de Burci Serlon de Burci was a Norman of the eleventh century. After the Norman conquest of England, he became a feudal baron and major landowner in south-west England. His feudal barony had as its ''caput'' the manor of Blagdon in Somerset. He is recor ...

. The new church was built by Sir Edward Hext and completed by Baron Stawell to be the chapel for a new

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

, however the house was never completed. The gateway which was built was moved to Hazlegrove House.

Architecture

The church was built of local stone with

Hamstone Hamstone is the name given to a honey-coloured building stone from Ham Hill, Somerset, England. It is a well-cemented medium to coarse grained limestone characterised by marked bedding planes of clay inclusions and less well-cemented material ...

dressings, in a

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style. It has a three- bay

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 ...

and two-bay

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 three stage tower has corner

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 ( ...

es and gargoyles. It contains two bells one of which was cast before 1350 and the other around 1500. There are still some remnants of 15th century stained glass in the windows. The windows have decorative

tracery Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support the ...

. The interior includes monuments to Sir Edward Hext and to several generations of the Stawell family. There is a wooden chancel screen and a stone screen which was brought from

St Mark's Church, Bristol St Mark's Church is an ancient church on the north-east side of College Green, Bristol, England, built c. 1230. Better known to mediaeval and Tudor historians as the Gaunt's Chapel, it has also been known within Bristol since 1722 as the ...

. The pulpit is Jacobean. The parish of High Ham is within the Langport Area Team Ministry benefice which is part of the

Diocese of Bath and Wells The Diocese of Bath and Wells is a diocese in the Church of England Province of Canterbury in England. The diocese covers the county of Somerset and a small area of Dorset. The Episcopal seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells is located in the ...

References

External links

Church website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Church Without Dedication, High Ham Churches completed in 1690 17th-century Church of England church buildings High Ham High Ham, Church without dedication High Ham, Church without dedication 1690 establishments in England

History

Architecture

See also

References

External links