Church of St Nicholas and the Blessed Virgin Mary, Stowey

About

The Anglican Parish Church of St Nicholas and the Blessed Virgin Mary at Stowey within the English county of Somerset dates from the 13th century. It is a Grade II listed building. There may have been a wooden church on the site at the time of the Domesday Book, although the first written record from the Bath cartulary is of 1235. The oldest part of the current stone church is the chancel at the eastern end, which now contains the altar and has a small priest's door, above which is a small carved figure. The nave was added in the 14th century. The three-stage tower, which was added in the 14th or early 15th century, is supported by diagonal buttresses and has a stair turret in the northeast corner. It has six bells which are regularly rung for services. Five of the bells are from the local foundry of the Bilbie family, to which a sixth from the Whitechapel Bell Foundry was added in 1991.

The church, which is adjacent to Stowey House, is built of the same local red sandstone, with alternating lias and red sandstone bands to the nave. It has a tiled roof above the chancel, while the nave and north porch have a slate roof. The church was altered in the 17th century, and in the 19th it...