The hamlet of Thurlbear lies 3.75m SE of Taunton and is in the civil parish of Orchard Portman. The church of St Thomas is located in the centre of the settlement on a minor road. E of the church the land slopes down into the hollow of a hill. The church consists of a 15thc. W tower, nave with N and S aisles and S porch and a chancel. Perhaps unexpectedly, the core of the building is Romanesque, including N and S aisle arcades and a font. There is also an engaged column on the exterior of the chancel. The church is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.

The Count of Mortain held Thurlbear in 1086, with Drogo de Montacute as tenant. In 1066 it was held by Wulfgeat. The de Montacute family held Thurlbear for most of the medieval period (Mayberry, 1998).

Mayberry considers the engaged column to be 11thc in date. It could have belonged to a chapel or transept that was demolished in the 19thc. Alternatively, the feature may simply have been intended from the outset as a buttress.

If the nave corbel tables inside the aisles were created before the aisles were built they would originally have been an external feature.

The capitals of the nave arcade show a variation, perhaps a development of artistic complexity, from plain scallops to inscribed semicircles, sometimes also beaded, with an extra moulding or a nailhead frieze.