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Wells St Cuthbert, Somerset

Location
(51°12′31″N, 2°38′59″W)
Wells St Cuthbert
ST 547 457
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Somerset
now Somerset
medieval Wells
now Bath & Wells
  • Robin Downes
  • Robin Downes
24 July 2007

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Feature Sets
Description

Situated in the centre of the cathedral town of Wells, the present church of St Cuthbert dates from the 13thc. It is the largest parish church in Somerset and is occasionally mistaken for the cathedral. The W tower is 15thc, replacing a central tower. It is thought that the first church on the site was an Anglo-Saxon one, dedicated to King Alfred's patron saint, St Cuthbert (Stroud, 1995). The only remnants of the Norman Romanesque church are fragments of a pillar piscina displayed in the Lady Chapel.

History

In DB Wells was held by the Bishop of Wells.

Features

Furnishings

Piscinae/Pillar Piscinae

Comments/Opinions

The accidental discovery of the piscina remnants in the 19thc raises the possibility that more material may survive as yet undiscovered in other later medieval Somerset churches.

Bibliography

F. Arnold-Forster, Studies in Church Dedications (London, 1899), III, 298.

Historic England listing 1383111.

N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol (Harmondsworth, 1958), 322.

Somerset County Council, Historic Environment Record 20454. Online at http://webapp1.somerset.gov.uk/her/text.asp

P. Stroud, The Parish Church of Wells, St Cuthbert (Wells, 1995).