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I Location

II General Description

Single nave and chancel of c.1100 (12thc. window in N wall, 12thc. paintings on chancel arch wall) with timber bell turret at W end of nave and S nave doorway. The chancel E wall was rebuilt 13thc., and the chancel arch enlarged and a S chancel chapel added, probably c.1463. Romanesque sculpture comprises a font, a pillar piscina and a loose fragment elaborately carved with foliage.

V Furnishings

1. Fonts

(i)

At W end of nave stands an almost cylindrical unlined tub font of oolitic limestone without base or plinth. According to notes made in 1911 and recorded in the church, it originally stood on 5 shafts, but none of these could be found. The bowl is plain except for a band around the bottom carved with simple arcading, now badly eroded.

Dimensions

3. Piscinae/Pillar Piscinae

(i) Pillar piscina

On S side of chancel, of oolitic limestone. Consists of a crudely-carved cushion capital with integrally carved half-shaft on a later, square base.

Dimensions

VI Loose Sculpture

(i) Fragment

Fragment of chalk with traces of red paint, carved in relief with an elaborate foliage motif consisting of a stem rising from a beaded collar and bifurcating into two scrolls to L and R, each having a reeded leaf with scalloped edge branching from it, and each terminating at the centre of the scroll, alongside the collar, in a similar leaf. The motif was originally enclosed in a square frame, the bottom of which remains.

Dimensions

VII History

The church served the Manor House as well as the village, and in particular the Fettiplace family, first recorded at East Shefford in the person of Thomas Fettiplace in 1413. He m. Beatrice, a member of the royal family of Portugal, and their tomb is in the S chapel. The Fettiplace connection ended with Thomas's great-grandson John, and his wife Dorothy (also buried in the church). The Manor House was demolished in 1871, and in the previous year regular worship at the church was discontinued, although it is still consecrated. The congregation transferred to the newly-built church of the Holy Innocents (now demolished). Plans to demolish St Thomas's in 1958 were halted by the Friends of Friendless Churches. In 1972 the church was taken over by the Redundant Churches Fund, renamed The Churches Conservation Trust in 1994.

VIII Comments/Opinions

IX Bibliography