Holy Cross, Seend

Holy Cross is a Grade I parish church just south of the High Street in Seend, Wiltshire, in the Diocese of Salisbury and the Wellsprings Benefice.

Overview

Historic England records an Anglican parish church that is mostly of about 1450, with a fourteenth-century west tower and a chancel of 1876 by A. J. Style. The fabric is ashlar, with rubble stone to the earlier tower, and low-pitched lead roofs behind battlements. The low three-stage tower has a fifteenth-century ashlar bell-stage, embattled parapet and corner pinnacles. The nave has a high clerestory of large Perpendicular windows and an embattled parapet; the north aisle was rebuilt by John Stokys (died 1498) and retains a rare carved clothiers’ shears on the west window moulding.

The interior includes a fifteenth-century five-bay timber roof to the north aisle, four-bay nave arcades, a fourteenth-century tower arch, and a fifteenth-century octagonal font. The listing notes monuments to the Crook, Wyatt, Biscoe, Husey, Tipper, Schomberg and Locke families, and brasses to John Stokys and his wife. The church stands on Seend ridge, with views south toward Salisbury Plain.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1243604
• Wellsprings Benefice: Holy Cross, Seend
• British Listed Buildings: Church of the Holy Cross