NHER 8581 (Building record) - St Mary's Church, West Somerton

September 1962. Listed Grade II*.
Listing Description:
Parish church. West tower and nave c.1200, the former with 14th-century belfry stage. Nave remodelled early 14th century. Chancel 15th century. Restoration 1867. Flint with ashlar dressings and some brick repairs. Thatched nave roof and slated chancel. Three stage tower, lower two stages are circular. Restored two-light 14th-century west window : trefoil-headed lights supporting quatrefoil. Brick lancet to ringing chamber with pointed head and brick relieving arch. String course below octagonal belfry stage. Single lancets to each facet, alternatively blocked with knapped flint. Plain brick parapet. Diagonal west nave buttresses. Kneelers at west gable of ashlar bearing rosettes and carved heads. Blocked arched south door. Three two-light late 13th-century Y windows to south nave and one 18th-century sloping brick buttress, slated. Above windows is a deep pantiled string course. This pattern similar to north except only two windows : one of two lights and Y tracery as before. The other two-lights and cusped under square head. Gabled north porch has wave moulded entrance arch with one order engaged columns. Thatched roof. Chancel supported by flushwork diagonal east buttresses and stepped side buttresses framing 19th-century Perpendicular windows. Two of three lights each to flanks, one of five lights to east. Low priests door to north with two orders of wave mouldings.
Interior. 14th-century chamfered and hollow chamfered tower arch on polygonal responds with capitals. Arched rere arches to north and south nave doorways. Mid 14th-century chancel arch has concave fluting to engaged columns, high polygonal bases and star capitals, all no doubt by a mason who worked in the choir at Ely c.1328- 35. The jambs themselves are wave moulded and restored. Plain 14th-century octagonal font. Late 14th-century wall paintings in nave. North wall has entry into Jerusalem, Flagellation and Resurrection, all now badly worn. On south side St. Christopher and large scene of Day of Judgement. 19th-century boarded scissor braced nave and chancel roofs. 15th-century hexagonal pulpit with concave sides, the edges moulded and each panel carrying ogee tracery. One facet open to allow entry via 19th-century stairs, another, facing wall, is blank. Moulded top rail. Plinth also 19th century. Reduced 15th-century chancel screen of 1½ bays each side of cusped ogee opening. Two lozenge traceried dado panels. Above are two-light ogeed tracery lights and panel tracery below top rail. Fleur-de-lys cresting to top rail.
Information from (S15).
P. Watkins (HES), 22 August 2019.

1989. Watching Brief.
Watching brief carried out when render was stripped from the north nave wall of the round-towered church. This revealed a Norman nave, door and windows, which contained bricks which may be Roman but do not appear to be so. One of the round-headed windows had a sill formed by a massive lava slab. The north doorway is dated to circa 1200, and the round tower is proposed to be mid-13th century, with a chancel Perpendicular, probably by a mason who worked at Ely Cathedral and thus early for Norfolk. There are 18th to 19th century alterations and the church was restored in 1867.
Important set of wallpaintings circa 1377. There are various tomb slabs and stone coffin lids, and one was found in yard. A stone carving was dug up in the church in the 19th century.
See report (S1) for further details. See also newspaper articles (S2)-(S6) and photographs (S7). The results of this work are summarised in (S12) and (S13).
E. Rose (NAU), 30 October 1989 amended by M. Langham-Lopez (HES) 24 June 2013.

1993.
Thermoluminescence date of three samples from bricks produced a mean date of AD 470 +/- 100; it was felt this indicated an Early/Middle Saxon (or less likely a late Roman) date for the bricks.
See report (S8) in file.
E. Rose (NLA), 31 December 1993.

March 2004.
Further notes (S9) in file.
E. Rose (NLA), 27 March 2004.

July 2009.
Roof re-thatched with traditional reed. Victorian thatching pegs were recovered from the existing thatch.
See (S10) and (S11) for further details
H. White (NLA), 1 July 2009

2009-2011. Dendrochronological Survey.
A number of timbers from this church were sampled for tree-ring analysis but unfortunately none proved to be suitable for dating.
The timbers sampled included several from the main structure of the medieval nave roof, which were considered to contain too few rings. Several thatching spars had sufficient rings but were found to have been almost destroyed by insect attack.
See report (S14) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 22 August 2019.

2012
Angel Award for the Best Repair of a Place of Worship
Pauline Burkitt and Simon Pleasley, churchwardens for St Mary's church, West Somerton, Norfolk.
D. Gurney (HES), 1 November 2012.