Yeovilton is a village in the South Somerset district of the county, 1 miE of the Roman town of Lindinis (Ilchester) and 5 mi N of Yeovil. It lies on the N bank of the River Yeo, close to the route of the Fosse Way. The church of St Bartholomew was formerly the parish church, but fell into disrepair and was made redundant in 1988. It was bought by the Royal Navy for £1 in 1992 and on the 11th November of the following year it reopened as the Fleet Air Arm Memorial church. It dates largely from the 14th-15thc and consists of a nave and chancel with a later S chapel, a N porch and a W tower. Construction is of local lias, cut, squared and coursed, with hamstone dressings. It was restored in 1877. Romanesque features described here are a window head reset in the N porch, the remains of an arch set as a frieze below the S chapel window, a corbel reset to the W of the S chancel doorway, and the main altar slab.

An estate in Yeovilton was granted by King Edward the Elder to an unnamed thegn between 899 and 925. King Edwy gave 5 hides there to Brihtric (955-59). In the Confessor’s reign most of Yeovilton belonged to his thegn Aelfstan of Boscombe. By 1086 it had passed, with Aelfstan’s other lands, to William de Eu, and Ralph Bluet held it from him. In 1066 it was assessed at 8 hides, and a further 2 hides were added, held by 5 thegns in parage (shared ownership). The manor also had 2 mills, 90 acres of meadow, and 40 acres of pasture. The overlordship remained with the Counts of Eu until the early 13thc, when it passed to the Earl Marshal (William Marshal). The tenancy remained in the Bluet family until the 14thc. A later manor of Yeolvilton is known from 1179, when Hugh, son of Richard held a fee there. His descendants apparently took the name of Yeovilton, and Hugh of Yeovilton is known to have granted land here to the canons of Bruton in the early 13thc or thereabouts. The advowson of the church was granted by Sir William of Yeovilton to Montacute priory between 1272 and 1282, and the monks sold it to Robert Burnell, bishop of Bath and Wells.

The arrangment of re-set stone below the S chancel window has the appearance of being part of the 1877 restoration/rebuilding work: the condition of the window and the rather self-conscious relieving arch above the window appear typical of Victorian work, as is the neat row of reset stones beneath, doubtless found during rebuilding at that time. The Listing description identifies the decorative frieze as the remains of a Norman doorway arch, although a single source like this seems far from certain. The fact that non-adjacent stones do not have the same amount of heat damage suggests that the fire they were damaged in took place before the late 19thc. If there was indeed a fire at some stage, perhaps in the later medieval or early modern era, this might explain why the feature(s) they were part of were subsequently dismantled. Together, they indicate a high level of patronage and artistic enterprise here in the mid 12thc.

The fieldworker suggests the N porch windows have presumably re-sited.