The
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
Church of St Mary in
Kilve
Kilve is a village in the Somerset West and Taunton district of Somerset, England, within the Quantock Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the first AONB to be established, in 1957.
It lies on the A39 almost exactly equidistant from Brid ...
,
Somerset, England was built in the 14th century. It is a Grade II*
listed building.
History
The first church on the site was most likely built around the 12th century if not sooner.
Parts of the 14th century church remain with additions in the 15th century and the tower is said to have been built sometime around 1636. The vestry was added in some time around 1876 and the whole church restored in 1913.
Another extensive renovation was completed in 2006.
The church is noted for having a choir from
Kilve Chantry
Kilve Chantry was a religious site in Kilve, Somerset, England.
The Chantry was founded in 1329, when a brotherhood of five monks was employed to say Mass for their founder, Simon de Furneaux. The Roll of Incumbents shows that several successive ...
until around the 15th century.
The parish of Kilve with
Kilton and
Lilstock
Lilstock is a hamlet in the civil parish of Stringston within the Somerset West and Taunton district of Somerset, England. It is north-west of Bridgwater, and north-east of Williton. It is on the coast of Bridgwater Bay on the Bristol Channel ...
is part of the Quantock Coast
Benefice
A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...
within the
Diocese of Bath and Wells.
Architecture
The
blue lias stone building has a slate roof. It consists of a two-
bay
A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...
nave,
chancel and
vestry with a south porch. The two-stage west tower is supported by diagonal
buttresses.
There are two bells, the oldest of which was cast around 1500. The bells were housed in a separate
thatched building until the construction of the tower.
[A P Baggs, R J E Bush and M C Siraut, 'Parishes: Kilve', in A History of the County of Somerset: Volume 5, ed. R W Dunning (London, 1985), pp. 96-103. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/som/vol5/pp96-103 ccessed 3 September 2017]
The interior a 12th 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 ...
and a royal coat of arms from 1660. The chancel has a plastered
barrel vault
A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...
ceiling from the 15th century.
See also
*
List of ecclesiastical parishes in the Diocese of Bath and Wells
References
{{reflist
Grade II* listed buildings in West Somerset
Grade II* listed churches in Somerset