All Saints, Selworthy
All Saints, Selworthy
All Saints is a Grade I parish church above Selworthy village on Exmoor, Somerset, in the Diocese of Bath and Wells. Historic England and the Exmoor Historic Environment Record treat it as one of the finest parish churches in the county.
- Location
- Selworthy, Somerset
- Country
- England
- County
- Somerset
- City / town
- Selworthy
- Address
- Selworthy, Somerset, TA24 8TR
- Postcode
- TA24 8TR
- Built
- C14 tower; Perpendicular nave and aisles; south aisle dated 1538
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- All Saints
- Diocese
- Bath and Wells
- Parish
- Selworthy
- Grade
- I
- Style
- Perpendicular
- Materials
- Roughcast over rubble, Ham stone dressings, slate roofs
- Grid reference
- SS 919 468
- Opening hours
- Sorry, there are no regular opening times for this church.
- Access
- Accessible toilets nearby. Level access to the main areas
Overview
The listing records a fourteenth-century lower stage to the west tower, with the rest of the church Perpendicular. The crenellated and buttressed south aisle is dated 1538 on a south-west arcade respond. Fabric is roughcast over rubble with Ham stone dressings and slate roofs. The plan is a two-stage unbuttressed west tower, four-bay nave, north and south aisles, two-storey south porch and chancel. A restoration of 1875 revealed wall paintings, now much eroded.
Inside, a Perpendicular arcade has clustered columns with vine-leaf capitals. There is no original chancel arch. Wagon roofs include a ceiled nave roof with bosses and a particularly fine south-aisle roof with moulded ribs, bosses and a triple-frieze wall plate with angels; north-aisle bosses were carved in 1890 by a local woodworking class. An oak west gallery was added about 1750. The Exmoor HER notes a Saxon font bowl and fragments of medieval glass, and records Pevsner praising the south chancel as unsurpassed in the county. Francis Eeles, founder of the Council for the Care of Churches, is buried here.