Chiselborough is 6 miles NE of Crewkerne. The place-name is derived from the Saxon ‘cisel’ [= gravel, shingle] and ‘beorg’ [= hill] so it may be construed as Saxon for ‘Sandy Hill’. The settlement occupies a narrow NW/SE valley running up into the limestone hills composed of the famous Hamstone. The photograph taken from Ham Hill, the site of the quarries, shows the NW end of the village projecting onto lower ground between Gawler’s and Balham Hills. The church (whose steeple is visible in the photograph) is almost the last building in the NW direction. The church has 12thc origins with a 17thc chancel; a rebuilding of the nave took place in 1842. The building features a 3-cell plan of a 2-bay chancel, a crossing tower with a spire, and a 5-bay nave with matching N and S porches. Construction is of Hamstone coursed rubble in the tower, cut and squared in the chancel and ashlar in the nave.
The W crossing arch is a structure of 1911 incorporating three re-used 12thc elements that were found buried in the walls. Further re-used Romanesque features are two heads fixed to the E wall of the chancel.