The Anglican Church of St Lawrence in

Lydeard St Lawrence Lydeard St Lawrence or St Lawrence Lydiard is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated north west of Taunton. The village has a population of 506. The parish includes the hamlets of Westowe, Hoccombe and Pyleigh, with its 16th ...

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, England dates from 1350 and has been designated as a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. The parish is part of the benefice of

Bishops Lydeard Bishops Lydeard () is a village and civil parish located in Somerset, England, north-west of Taunton. The civil parish encompasses the hamlets of East Lydeard and Terhill, and had a population of 2,839 persons as recorded in the 2011 census; th ...

with Lydeard St Lawrence, Bagborough, Combe Florey and

Cothelstone Cothelstone is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated in the Quantock Hills six miles north of Taunton. The parish, which includes the hamlet of Toulton, has a population of 111. The view from Cothelstone with a telescope on ...

within the archdeaconry of

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a Minster (church), minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century priory, monastic foundation, owned by the ...

History

The manor was granted to

Taunton Priory Taunton Priory, or the Priory of St Peter and St Paul, was an Augustinian house of canons founded c. 1115 by William Gyffarde (also called William Giffard), Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of England near Taunton, Somerset, England. Histor ...

by Simon de Florey in the late 12th century with the patronage later being held by the Portman family during the 17th and 18th centuries. The

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

and

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 ...

of the church are from the original construction; however the north

aisle An aisle is a linear space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, in buildings such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parliaments, courtrooms, ...

, three-stage west tower, and north and south porches were added in the 15th century. The church underwent

Victorian restoration The Victorian restoration was the widespread and extensive wikt:refurbish, refurbishment and rebuilding of Church of England church (building), churches and cathedrals that took place in England and Wales during the 19th-century Victorian era, re ...

in 1869.

Interior

The church includes a 14th-century

piscina A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, or else in the vestry or sacristy, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Lutherans and Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a pisci ...

and a screen from the early 16th century. The

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

is inverted with the original bowl being at the bottom and a new bowl carved into the top surface which was originally the base. Local legend says this was due to anger among local residents at

John Venn John Venn, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, FSA (4 August 1834 – 4 April 1923) was an English mathematician, logician and philosopher noted for introducing Venn diagrams, which are used in l ...

for signing the death warrant of

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

. They did not wish for their children to be baptised in the same font, however it is more likely to have been following damage to the font during restoration works.

Churchyard

In the churchyard is the remains of a church cross dating from the 14th century. The shaft is octagonal and made from red sandstone. There is also a Ham stone chest tomb inscribed to John North who died in 1721 and Grace North who died in 1759. There are also several unidentified tombs from the 17th and 18th centuries.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lydeard St Lawrence, Church of St Lawrence Church of England church buildings in Taunton Deane Buildings and structures completed in 1350 Grade I listed churches in Somerset Grade I listed buildings in Taunton Deane

History

Interior

Churchyard

See also

References

External links