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St Giles, Leigh-on-Mendip, Somerset

Location
(51°13′26″N, 2°26′27″W)
Leigh-on-Mendip
ST 693 473
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Somerset
now Somerset
medieval Wells
now Bath & Wells
medieval St Giles
now St Giles
  • Robin Downes
  • Robin Downes
16 Aug 2007

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Description

Leigh-on-Mendip is about 5 miles from Frome and Shepton Mallet. At about 200m OD up on the E Mendips, the large linear village occupies reasonably level land on a broad W-E ridge to the SW of the large limestone quarry of Halecombe. Disused quarries lie to the N and S, the latter adjacent to Downhead; indeed, the surrounding area is punctuated by them. 500m S of the village runs the old main road between Wells and Frome. The church was rebuilt c1500 but contains a Romanesque font.

History

The manor is not mentioned in DB; it formed part of Glastonbury Abbey's estate of Mells until the dissolution (Viggiani).

Features

Furnishings

Fonts

Loose Sculpture

Comments/Opinions

This is one of many Somerset churches rebuilt in the later medieval period which preserves an early font.

Bibliography
  1. F. Arnold-Forster, Studies in Church Dedications (London, 1899), III, 179.

Historic England listing 1058345.

  1. N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol (Harmondsworth, 1958), 217.

Somerset County Council, Historic Environment Record 27315. Online at www.somersetheritage.org.uk/record/23733#

M. de Viggiani, A History of Leigh on Mendip (Leigh-on-Mendip, 2010).