The Church of St Michael at

Brent Knoll Brent Knoll is a hill on the Somerset Levels, in Somerset, England. It is located roughly halfway between Weston-super-Mare and Bridgwater, from the Bristol Channel coast at Burnham-on-Sea. At the foot of the hill are two villages East Brent ...

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 11th century but has undergone several extensions and renovations since then. 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 ...

. There is a

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 ...

doorway however the rest of the church dates from around 1290. The north aisle was built in the late 15th century. The three-stage tower, which has been dated to around 1397, contains a bell dating from 1777 and made by William Bilbie of 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 ...

. The church is best known for its unusual carvings on some of its pew ends and in particular the three that make up an allegorical cartoon thought to depict an avaricious

Abbot of Glastonbury __NOTOC__ The Abbot of Glastonbury was the head (or abbot) of Anglo-Saxon and eventually Benedictine house of Glastonbury Abbey at Glastonbury in Somerset, England. The following is a list of abbots of Glastonbury: Abbots See also * Abbot's Ki ...

in the guise of a fox. The pulpit is from the 17th century.

Architecture

The Parish Church of St Michael at Brent Knoll had its origins in the eleventh century, with further construction work taking place in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, with a restoration in the nineteenth century. It is built of coursed and squared rubble stone, with lead sheeting on the roofs apart from the chancel roof, which is slated. There are cruciform

finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...

s on the gable ends. The church is built mostly in the

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 ...

style, the plan being the nave, the chancel, the north aisle, the fourteenth century south porch and the south transept, now used as a vestry. The fourteenth century tower is at the west end and has three stages with set-back buttresses. It is topped by a parapet with pinnacles, and

gargoyle In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from running down masonry walls ...

s to shed the water. The Norman doorway in the south porch has chevron decorations. The fifteenth century nave has a wagon roof, and fittings inside the church include an eleventh century

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 ...

, a

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

dated 1637, a Jacobean coffin-stool and chair, and a Medieval parish chest. The interior of the church is particularly noted for the bench ends of the pews which are elaborately carved and date to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The church is used as the venue for a series of musical and arts events each summer.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brent Knoll, Saint Michael Church of England church buildings in Sedgemoor Grade I listed churches in Somerset Grade I listed buildings in Sedgemoor 11th-century church buildings in England