Before the Norman Conquest Over Stowey, which was on the Herepath, or military road, over the Quantocks, formed part of a hunting estate. Over Stowey belonged to a succession of Anglo-Saxon Kings, ending with King Harold in 1066. The Domesday Book records that in 1086 Marsh Mills (Mulsella) was held by Alfred D'Epaignes, who probably built the castle, of which the remains can be seen in the field a short distance north of the church.
In Saxon times, King Alfred's military road, the Herepath, ran up from Combwich, Cannington and Over Stowey, along the present course of the Stowey road, across Dead Woman's Ditch to Crowcombe Park Gate, south along the main ridge of the Quantocks to Triscombe Stone, then west across the valley to the Brendon Hills and Exmoor. The road connected a series of forts and lookout posts, which allowed Alfred's armies to move along the coast to cover Viking movements at sea and forestall any raids ashore. The path from Dowsborough to the Herepath is called Great Bear Path, and this is taken to be a corruption of Great Herepath, which suggests that Dowsborough could have been a Saxon lookout over the Bristol Channel.
The first record of a church in Over Stowey is in 1144, but the present building is of a later date. It is constructed of local red sandstone, in roughly coursed rubble, with freestone dressings. The oldest surviving part is the tower, which is of the Perpendicular period, and in architectural terms two-staged, embattled, with offset plinth and diagonal buttresses. Apart from the west window, it retains its original form. The nave and north aisle are of a similar date, but were largely rebuilt in 1840 when the church was extensively restored and extended by the architect Richard Carver. Further additions were made around the turn of the century.
Over Stowey Church St Peter and St Paul Parish Church
The church has a ring of six bells—Tenor 1714 by Thomas Wroth of Wellington; Fifth & Third c. 1470 by a medieval foundry at Exeter; Fourth 1790 by George Davis of Bridgwater; Second 1865 by Warner & Sons, London, and Treble 1939 by John Taylor of Loughborough.
The Church Organ made by Henry Bryceson of London, and installed about 1847 with the proceeds of a fund started at the age of 17 by Kate Ward, the youngest daughter of Thomas Ward. In her memoirs Miss Ward, who died in 1925 in her 100th year, recalls that there were no organs in the village churches in her early days— 'At Over Stowey we had a flute, a clarinet and a bass viol, and one man with a big bass voice, who could not read'.
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