Church of St Thomas A Becket

About

The Church of St Thomas à Becket is the Anglican parish church for the ancient village of South Cadbury in Somerset and is dedicated to Thomas Becket. Today it is one of the 'Camelot Churches' of South Somerset in the Diocese of Bath and Wells and has been a Grade II* listed building since 1961. The church was much restored in the 1850s and 1870s.

The Domesday Book of 1086 states that a priest (clericus) here had half of geldable land, which indicates an important church was on the site then. The dedication is to Thomas Becket who was martyred at Canterbury Cathedral in 1170. The first recorded Rector at South Cadbury is Peter de Burg in 1265, when the Cult of St Thomas would have been at its height and which makes it likely that the early wall painting (restored in 1984) of a bishop in cope and mitre seen on the splay of a window in the south aisle may represent St Thomas himself. Built of cary and lias stone, mostly ashlar, with some Doulting stone dressings, the church largely dates from the 13th and 15th centuries, but was widely restored in 1874. Many of the fittings date from this time. However, the tower with its turret, pinnacles and gargoyles was built in the 14th-century...