Church of St Dunstan
Brown stone building with square tower at the left hand end. In the foreground is a grass area with gravestones.
St Dunstan's Church, Baltonsborough is located in Somerset
St Dunstan's Church, Baltonsborough
Location within Somerset
General information
Town or cityBaltonsborough
CountryEngland
Coordinates51°06′38″N 2°39′22″W / 51.1105°N 2.6562°W / 51.1105; -2.6562
Completed15th century

The Church of St Dunstan in Baltonsborough, Somerset, England, was built in the 15th century. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building.[1]

The dedication honours St Dunstan who was born in Baltonsborough in 909, and eventually became Archbishop of Canterbury and an important monastic reformer of the Anglo-Saxon period.[2] Legends attached to Dunstan portray him nailing a horseshoe onto the devil, earning him a place as a patron saint of blacksmiths.

There is a four bay nave and two bay chancel.[1] The nave is particularly wide and has caused stress in the roof and an outward lean in the north wall.[3] The church's simple Somerset tower is topped by an elaborate ironwork weather vane crafted by the local blacksmith in the 19th century.[4] The interior includes a 15th-century font.[1] The screen was designed by Frederick Bligh Bond.[3]

The churchyard contains war graves of a Somerset Light Infantry soldier of World War I and a Royal Navy sailor of World War II.[5]

The parish is part of the benefice of Baltonsborough with Butleigh, West Bradley and West Pennard, which is known as the Brue Benefice.[6][7]

One former vicar of the church was Edward Mellish who was awarded the Victoria Cross in World War I.[8]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Church of St Dunstan". historicengland.org.uk. English Heritage. Retrieved 16 May 2009.
  2. ↑ Dunning, Robert (1983). A History of Somerset. Chichester: Phillimore & Co. ISBN 0-85033-461-6.
  3. 1 2 Dunning, Robert (1996). Fifty Somerset Churches. Somerset Books. pp. 18–21. ISBN 978-0861833092.
  4. ↑ Pevsner, Nikolaus (2003). The Buildings of England, South and West Somerset. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-09644-5.
  5. ↑ CWGC Cemetery report, detail from casualty record.
  6. ↑ "St Dunstan, Baltonsborough". Church of England. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
  7. ↑ "St. Dunstan's Church". Mendip Council. Archived from the original on 4 September 2012. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
  8. ↑ "Licence of the Rev. Edward Noel Mellish VC. to Perpetual Curacy of Baltonsborough". National Archives. Retrieved 23 January 2016.
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