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All Saints

All Saints

Castle Cary

Somerset

Saxon origins, main church C1470, heavily restored by Benjamin Ferrey 1851-1855.

Architectural Features

east window a 4-light C19 version of C15 tracery under arched label with headstops

to south a 3-light C15 traceried window set in hollowed pointed-arch recess without label, and to north similar window partly obscured by vestry

Nave visible as the clerestorey, with 3-light C15 traceried windows in 4-centre arched hollowed recesses without labels.

simple C15 style outer arch with empty canopied statue niche over, and pointed moulded inner arch, with inner doorway in south-east corner to octagonal stair turret leading to parvise.

south porch of ashlar, 2 storeys, with corner buttresses with gargoyles at head, battlemented parapet

C15 style outer arch and moulded pointed inner arch with a possibly C15 door

first floor reached by north-east octagonal stair turret, and has 2 C14 style small traceried windows without labels flanking a canopied statue niche in which is set a medieval wooden figure.

double plinth, string courses, open-traceried battlemented parapets with gargoyles under

tall spire with carved middle band and weathervane finial, having crocketted and pinnacled gablets at bases of principal faces to small windows

south-east corner has octagonal stair turret with stepped stone roof 2 stages high: bottom stage plain: stage 2 has a 4-light C19 traceried west window in a C15 style with pointed arched label, with a thin lancet window set above

to stage 3 all round are 2-light C15 style traceried windows with diagonal traceried stone baffles under stilted arched labels extended as an additional string course

arches to transepts and nave C15 style, but probably recut.

Nave has C15 arcade with 4-shaft and hollow columns, but roof is a C19 traceried king-post type.

Fittings include a C15 style timber pulpit, almost totally C19 but possibly with some original fragments

C15 octagonal font with double quatrefoil panels each face of bowl, foilage carved coving and traceried panelled shaft.

Several C17 Keinton stone slab memorials in nave floor nicely incised, and four C18 marble plaque memorials in tower.

Stained glass in east window by O'Connor, 1855, and in west window by Powell and Sons, 1864.

First recorded rector 1269.

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All Saints Church which, unusually for Somerset, has a spire and not a tower. www.castle-cary.co.uk

Colin Smith