Friday, February 20, 2009

Church of St Mary Magdalen, Chewton Mendip, Somerset

Normally I like Victorian work but the south porch is very bad work, and I was scathing too of the plate-traceried east window which is out of keeping with the rest; a "bad C19 arch from south aisle" into the south chapel is now hidden by a new organ loft (so maybe I got that right!). Medieval glass in the first N window of the chancel was placed here in 1973 and probably that mentioned by Pevsner as being in the (locked S transeptal) vestry.
However for all its imperfections you keep returning to the enigma of Chewton Mendip. Why this tower here? It is fan-vaulted inside and perfection outside, but totally out of scale with and architecturally superior to its church. So why wasn't the latter rebuilt as well?

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