Bath & Wells (now)
Parish church
Tolland is situated 9 mi NW of Taunton, Somerset, between the Brendon Hills and Quantock Hills. The church of St John the Baptist is 13thc and was remodelled in 1871. It is built of red sandstone rubble masonry with Ham stone facings, and consists of a W tower, nave with N aisle and vestry, chancel and S porch. The font is Romanesque.
Parish church
The tiny manorial hamlet of Tellisford, 6 mi NE of Frome, occupies land on the left bank of the river Frome which forms the boundary with Wiltshire as well as the parish boundary. The church of All Saints is close to the crossing of the road running roughly N-S across a plateau which runs down to the river; the first element of the place-name is related to an old form of ‘table’. The church, which is built of Doulting stone, consists of a W tower, nave with S porch and chancel. The S doorway is stylistically Romanesque in its essential form, but its date is contested (see Comments).
Parish church
The parish of Moorlinch, which is on the southern slopes of the Polden ridge, lies 6 miles E of Bridgwater. Most of the land lies on Keuper marl, with irregular areas of clay and limestone on the higher slopes, and alluvium between the marl and the peat of Sedgemoor. The church of St Mary, which is in a prominent position and dates from the 13thc., consists of a nave with S porch, chancel and W tower. The outer doorway contains restored Romanesque work. The tub font is also perhaps Romanesque work.
Parish church
The small town of Portishead occupies a strategic position on the S side of the mouth of the river Avon, and once enjoyed a trading importance subsidiary to Bristol, 8 mi away to the East. Now in North Somerset, Portishead was part of the County of Avon between 1974 and 1996. The town church of St Peter is in a surprisingly quiet area, surrounded by an airy rural atmosphere: no wonder local people refer to it as the ‘village’. The church has Romanesque origins but was rebuilt in the 14thc and 15thc in Perpendicular style. It was altered and extended to the east in 1878-9 using old materials and features. The font is Romanesque; there is also a possible early altar slab.
Parish church
The manorial hamlet of Laverton lies in rich farmland 8.5 miles S of Bath, about halfway between Frome and Norton St Philip. It is in a dip: the N-facing side is a valley of the Hennambridge Brook, a tributary of the river Frome. The manor house (now belonging to the Duchy of Cornwall) and church of St Mary are adjacent. The church, which is built of rubble, consists of an unusual W end, which Pevsner finds to be reminiscent of a westwerk (described as a tower in the HE listing), nave, N porch, chancel and vestry. It is mostly of the 11thc, with 15thc alterations. There was a restoration in 1859. The Romanesque elements consist of N (and possibly S) nave doorways and two windows in the western section.
Parish church
The small settlement of Staple Fitzpaine is sited near where a road (unclassified but well-used) running roughly NNW/SSE between Taunton to Chard crosses a stream running WSW/ENE down from the Blackdown Hills. The former mill using that watercourse is sited a very short distance NW of the crossroads at the village centre. Crossing the Taunton-Chard road at that crossroads, a lane runs roughly SW-NE, parallel to the stream, along the S side of the shallow valley from Staple Hill towards lower ground to the NE and major communication lines of road and rail.
Emphasising the political standing of the Count of Mortain, the parish still includes (at its SE corner) his castle, Castle Neroche. By area, the parish is the second largest in the county, but by demography it is diminutive, probably having changed very little over time. Staple Fitzpaine has its own manor-house, adjacent on the N side of St Peter’s church. Resting on the large block of Blue Lias which stretches from here NE far into the central area of the county, the village has a good source of favoured building-stone. Inevitably, the area is almost entirely agricultural in character.
The church, which consists of a W tower, a nave with N and S aisles, a S porch, avestry and a chancel is Norman in origin but has been largely rebuilt. The Romanesque S doorway has been reset in the S aisle.
Parish church
The compact village of Edington lies on the N side of the Polden Hills on a lower slope in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset, about 8 miles W of Glastonbury. Edington was a chapelry of Moorlinch until it became a separate parish in 1863. The church was completely rebuilt in 1878-79 by Edwin Down in a fabric of coursed and squared rubble with freestone dressings. The present building consists of a nave with a small N transept, chancel with N vestry, a S porch, and a W bellcote. The only Romanesque feature is a font.
Parish church
West Quantoxhead or St Audries (ie. St Etheldreda) is a small village near the N Somerset coast which lies on the route of the Coleridge Way and on the A39 at the foot of the Quantock Hills, about 13 miles NW of Bridgwater. The village was largely moved to nearby Staple by the lords of the manor in the 18th and 19thc. The church of St Etheldreda, formerly of the 13th-15thc, was rebuilt in 1854-56 to a late 13thc design by John Norton. It now consists of nave, chancel and vestry, N and S aisles, NW tower and S porch. The Romanesque font was retained from the previous church.
Parish church
Lcoking is 3.5 mi SE of Weston-super-Mare. The original settlement lies on the W tip of a small outlier of Blue Lias (stretching 2.5 mi E to Banwell village) between the limestone of Bleadon Hill 2 mi to the S and Milton Hill 2.5 mi to the N (both forming parts of the extreme westerly reach of the Mendip Hills). The S side of the village ends abruptly at a scarp above Locking Rhyne; the church, at about 18m above sea-level, is near the edge of that scarp and enjoys a relatively rural aspect to the S. Locking is named after its original inhabitants ‘Loccingas’ (i.e., ‘Locc’s People’). From 1974 to 1996 Locking was in the County of Avon. The church dates from late 14thc/early 15thc, and was restored in 1814/16 and in 1833. It has a noteworthy Romanesque font.
Parish church
The tiny hamlet of Lovington (Lufa’s tun) lies 1km S of the Somerset river Brue and only about 500m N of the Cary, on the SW edge of a terrace deposit of gravel on top of the locally predominant Lower Lias rock, with extensive tracts of such terrace deposit to the NE. The church is about 0.5 mi S of the secondary B3153 road linking Castle Cary to Somerton. The church has 13thc origins. The tower, nave and porch were all rebuilt from 1861-3. There is a font of unknown date, most probably post-c.1200, but which is included here for reference.