Parts of the present church were here probably within the century that followed the Battle of Hastings in 1066 - notably the fine Norman font and possibly the rounded arch stone doorway.
The original Norman church was probably as wide as the present nave; but, somewhere between 1,400 and 1,500, it began to show signs of collapse under the weight of its roof. You can see that the pillars of the arcade, on the south side, slope outwards toward their tops. They were probably built that way to line up with a soul wall, beginning to lean outwards from the top, and the top of which they now support.
The chancel arch has above it two pairs of windows unique in West Somerset, though common in the Cotswolds.
The tower is built in three stages, and rises to a height of ninety feet — an imposing height for a well-elevated church in this part of Somerset where moorland towers tend to be squat.
Winsford Church St.
Mary Magdalene
The four heaviest of the present six bells were cast in Cullompton, Devon in 1765 — the early reign of George III ('Farmer George'). The tenor bell has the inscription "Religion death, and pleasure make me ring,"
The second and treble bells were added in 1842 and 1897. The organ was a gift of a Mrs. Twopeny in 1860; it was not new then, having spent the first thirteen years of its life in the parish of Stockbury in Kent.
Winsford Church St.
Mary Magdalene
Winsford suffered less than many churches from the zeal of Victorian restorers. There was some judicious restoration by J. D. Sedding in 1890-91; he rid the church of its box pews (of no great age or interest) put in the present seating, renewed the roof, and relaid the floor.
Winsford Church St.
Mary Magdalene
Every century from the twelfth to the twentieth has its memorials in this building. It is more than likely, however, that what remains of the first Norman church built eight hundred years ago on this site was a replacement for an earlier church with less enduring qualities — probably a Saxon church — and before that buildings of wattle and daub. The Caractacus Stone on Winsford Hill is thought by some to be an early Christian monument, perhaps to British Christians pushed westwards (as they were into Cornwall and Wales) by Saxon invaders of England in the fifth century.
Winsford Church
Winsford Hill
Winsford
Winsford Murder |
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