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Description

DIGBY CHURCH STREET TF 05 SE (north side) 4/25 Church of St Thomas 1.2.67 A Becket I Parish church. Cll, C12, C13, C14, C15 chancel rebuilt 1881. Coursed limestone rubble and ashlar. Slate roofs, quoins and moulded ashlar plinth. West tower, nave, aisles, chancel and south porch. Unbuttressed west tower of 3 stages. West face has single chamfered, pointed lancet and above 3 chamfered ashlar bands. North face is blank. South face has pointed arched blocked doorway and projecting stiar with set-offs and 3 tiny windows. The third stage has a single 2 light bell opening to each face, in pointed arches with flowing tracery and a hood mould with stops. Above a chamfered ashlar band with rudely carved gargoyles, then battlements decorated with quartrefoils containing shields, and 4 crocketed corner pinnacles. Topped by an octagonal crocketed stone spire with lucarnes and a finial surmounted by an iron weather cock. The north aisle has a pointed, chamfered lancet to the west, and to the north 5 gabled buttresses with set-offs, and an off centre pointed arched doorway in chamfered surround with hood, to the right a pointed chamfered lancet. To the left two, 2 light segment headed windows with reticulated tracery in deeply chamfered surrounds. To the east a single 3 light pointed arched window with reticulated tracery in a chamfered surround. Above a 3 bay clerestory, with pairs of pointed arched windows with flowing tracery in moulded and chamfered surrounds with continuous hoods, topped by coped battlements with gargoyles and crocketed pinnacles to the east. The chancel north wall has a tiny round headed lancet, in chamfered surround. The east wall has a 3 light pointed arched window with unusual panel tracery, the gable wall is coped with a cross finial and moulded kneelers. The south wall has a central priest's door in a chamfered pointed arched surround with hood mould and foliate stops. Either side are pointed chamfered lancets. The south aisle has an east, 3 light pointed window with reticulated tracery in a chamfered surround with a hood. To the south a deeply chamfered plinth, and 2 buttresses with set-offs, plus 2 flat headed 2 light reticulated tracery windows in chamfered surrounds. To the east is a slate wall tablet to the 8 children of the Harmston family, dated 1844 and signed by Barnett of Hedeinkton. To the west the porch, with a shallow pitched gable roof and flush round arched opening. The south aisle, west wall has a single tall lancet in chamfered surround with remnants of a dogtooth hood. Inside the porch, stone benches and a round arched doorway with a fine double arched surround. The inner arch has double roll moulded joints with moulded imposts and double zig-zag moulded arch. The outer arch has columns with cushion capitals, though the shafts have now gone, an impost band and a zig-zag moulded arch. Interior: 3 bay nave arcades with pointed double chamfered arches on quatrefoil, keeled shafted piers and responds with moulded capitals and bases plus hood moulds with curved label stops. The north east respond has been replaced by a now mutilated, carved corbel. Another double chamfered arch leads from the west end of the north aisle into the present vestry. C15 octagonal bowl and stem font with diamond shaped panels. The tower arch, chamfered and pointed, partly obscured by the rood stair. The former steep pitch roof line visible on the upper wall. The double chamfered and pointed chancel arch has keeled responds, with a single stiff-leaf, and a single moulded capitals, with moulded bases. A curved C15 wooden screen in the chancel a double, pointed arched and chamfered piscina and a similar, single arched sedilia. C19 wooden roof on carved ashlar corbels. C19 wooden choir stalls, and reredos. Encaustic tile floor. Cupboard with wooden surround made up of pieces of C17 carving. Nave has C10 panel ceiling, and aisles C19 wooden roofs. C19 wooden benches, some with C15 curved bench ends. Various C19 wall tablets to Cooke family. Chancel has priests chair, made up from various pieces of C15 curved bench ends. Listing NGR: TF0804854816

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