St Mary Magdalene

Small C12 nave with a projecting C15 porch

C12 chancel with C19 vestry at right angles on the north.

Oval memorial plaque (probably C18) to the right with an almost illegible inscription.

Studded plank door to the left (within the porch) with Tudor closing ring, escutcheon and hinges within a hollow-moulded Tudor-arched surround

Grade II Listed former school house and school room. http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-131054-the-old-school-house-baunton-gloucesters Built on an 'L'-shaped plan of coursed squared and dressed Cotswold limestone, with a stone slate roof with ashlar and artificial stone chimney stacks, it consists of a two-storey school house (right) with single-storey school room (left) adjoining at right angles. All of the windows are 2-light, stone-mullioned casements with diamond leaded panes. The gable of the school house has an off-centre gabled porch, and there is a similar porch for the school room. Each porch has a Tudor-arched doorway; the shield above that of the school room is initialled and dated 'J. M. 1849' while that of the school house is blank. Each porch gable and the south-facing gable of the school house has stepped coping, roll-cross saddles (the decorative stones at their apex), and triangular kneelers (the large stones at the foot of the gable). The school house porch is now blocked, with a 2-light casement inserted into the blocking.

© Vieve Forward

Projecting lean-to stair turret (formerly giving access to the rood screen to the left. C15 parapet with moulded string and roll-moulded coping. Chancel south wall

single C19 two-light pointed window with cinquefoil-headed lights and a hood. Single similar window in the north wall. No east window. Gabled bell- hanging for 2 bells at the west gable end of the nave. Stepped gable-end coping. Three upright stone cross finials. Projecting Perpendicular gabled porch with pointed-arched entrance with hollow and flat-chamfered mouldings and hood. Stone bench seats within porch. Small square niche in the west wall. Two C18 ledgers in the stone flag floor the best preserved being to Henry Stephens, died 1728 and Elizabeth his wife, died 1723. Scraped interior with a 3-bay nave and 3-bay chancel. C19-early C20 roof trusses to the nave and chancel. The roof trusses to the chancel have arch-braced collar beams, and king posts and curved struts. The trusses in the nave have braced tie beams and king posts with curving struts. Red tile and plank flooring to the nave. Encaustic tiling to the chancel. Two flat-chamfered 4- centred arched doorways, one above the other (now blocked) in the north-wall close to the junction of the nave and chancel, formerly giving access to a Perpendicular rood screen.

polygonal stone font (probably C16) inside the south door resting on a C12 cylindrical font: Wooden pulpit incorporating some C17 carved oak panels including four pierced arcaded panels.

Part of the former Perpendicular rood screen with tracery and linen-fold panelling has been incorporated into the reredos.

Fine C14 wall painting (c3m wide by 4m high) of St Christopher on the nave north wall.

The church of St Mary Magdalene in Baunton has two things to show us from long ago. These are a 14th century wall painting of a landscape with St Christopher and a 15th century altar frontal which was returned to the church from a nearby cottage where it was being used as a table cloth. The church has its origins in the time of the Normans and has a 16th century font and a 17th century pulpit. It is one of the Cotswold churches which has no east window. North of Baunton the A417 from Driffield Crossroads [[SU 0698]] south-east of Cirencester to Ledbury [[SO 7136]] now flies over the A435 Cirencester – Cheltenham Road on a viaduct which came as a surprise to this Geographer in an area I had not visited for some time. The Monarch's Way runs for 625 miles by a circuitous route from Worcester to Brighton, oddly on the way passing through the Netherton canal tunnel in the Dudley area. Time photo taken not available.

© Martin Richard Phelan

St. Christopher is depicted wading through a stream, on the east bank is a hermit with a lantern and church, on the west a seated female figure, at the top is a landscape of trees, churches and a windmill.

In a frame east of the south doorway is a complete C15 embroidered altar frontal, composed of alternate strips of red and yellow silk embroidered with 17 double-headed eagles in silver thread, at the centre is a representation of the crucifixion with St Mary and St John, below which is a rebus of a name comprising a golden eagle gripping a white ass above a golden barrel from which issues two flowering branches.