St Mary Magdalene, Stocklinch

The Church of St Mary Magdalen is a Grade I parish church on Main Street, Stocklinch, Somerset, in the Diocese of Bath and Wells and the Winsmoor benefice. It is the lower of two historic churches in the village; St Mary the Virgin later became redundant.

Overview

Historic England records an Anglican parish church of the thirteenth century and later, of Ham stone rubble with ashlar dressings, the chancel partly of cut and squared work, under a Welsh slate roof between stepped coped gables, with a small west bellcote. The two-cell plan is a three-bay chancel and three-bay nave, with north-east vestry and south porch. The east window is a three-light flamboyant traceried opening. The west window is a three-light fifteenth-century window; a gallery doorway on the north side is reached by a stone stair.

Inside, the listing notes a chancel roof with elaborate probably seventeenth-century plaster, a fifteenth-century chancel arch, and an eighteenth-century west gallery with dentilled cornice. Wikipedia gives dimensions of 62 by 12 feet. The church is first recorded in 1277–78. A. H. Powell, appointed for the 1908–09 restoration, described it as one of the very few English churches that had not then undergone Victorian restoration. The parish is part of the Crewkerne and Ilminster deanery.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1057061
• British Listed Buildings: Church of St Mary Magdalen, Stocklinch
• Wikipedia: Church of St Mary Magdalene, Stocklinch