| Evercreech,
Somerset - St Peter Church
Click on photos to enlarge |
||||
 |
||||
| The
fame of the church is its W tower deemed by some one of the most perfect
in Somerset. It belongs to the Wells type in which an impression of
extreme height is obtained by continuing the tall transomed twin two-light
bell-openings below in yet larger twin two-light blank panels. That is
what happens in the upper stages. Otherwise the composition of the tower
is as follows. Set-back buttresses, carrying very tall shafts with
pinnacles. These reach up to just above the cill of the bell-openings. But
from between them rises, set diagonally, another tall shaft, and this goes
up far enough to join in the intricate play of pinnacles at the top of the
tower. Battlements with pierced quatrefoils and at the corners big
crocketed pinnacles accompanied by junior pinnacles, and the one standing
on the shaft from below becomes one of them. There are also small
intermediate pinnacles on the middle of the sides, and these come out of
shafts rising between the blank panels and then between the bell-openings. The church seems low behind this tower. It is, however, treated ornately too: aisles and clerestory with pierced quatrefoil parapets and pinnacles (the S aisle dates from 1843) ... The chancel is the earliest part of the church. It has an E window with reticulated tracery (typical of early C14), and side windows only slightly later. |
||||
 |
||||
| Internally the effect of the church is curiously cosy, thanks to the N and S galleries of 1843 squeezed balcony-like into the arcade arches. That is really the impression which remains of the interior. ... Standard piers with the familiar four hollows, rather short and insignificant. On two of the N piers angel brackets for images. Three-light clerestory. The roof is Somerset at its best, and the colouring, though of course renewed, helps to give something of what must have been the original effect. Chandeliers: Two, of brass, one dated 1761. | ||||
Bruton - Another Somerset Tower
