St Mary Magalene, Stowell
We do not know when the first church in Stowell was built. The Domesd
ay Book does not mention a church under its entry for Stowell, but as that survey was only marginally interested in recording ecclesiastical properties we need not conclude that Stowell lacked a church then. Stowell certainly had a church two hundred years later, because in 1269 a priest by the name of Reynold Michel is listed as the incumbent. Many priests in small parishes at that time would have been sons of peasants, but Michel could have been a man of property because in 1272 he was involved in a law suit defending his claim to 'two virgates of land excepting ten acres' in the nearby village of Henstridge.
Generally, though, the life of a medieval priest in one of Somerset's smaller parishes was a harsh one. In 1440, for example, Stowell was listed as one of the churches in the Diocese exempted from paying taxes ('tenths') because of its poverty. In order to survive the priest would have cultivated the church lands and received a small income for dealing with baptisms, weddings, death-bed visitations and funerals. During the Black Death priests were greatly at risk and Stowell church lost two of its incumbents between October 1348 and April 1349. There is little information about the life of Stowell's priests over the next four or five centuries, although Nicholas Clarke, who was the incumbent between 1631 and 1682, seems to have been quite prosperous. He leased the manor house - now Stowell Farm - and land from the lord of the manor, Hugh Hody.
A great deal of nineteenth century information about Stowell and its church has been extracted from the records and writings of the Reverend Henry James Poole who was rector of Stowell from 1876 until his death, aged 54, in 1898. He lived at the Rectory - now Stowell House - and is buried in Stowell churchyard. Poole was an accomplished musician and an authority on church music. He wrote 'The Antiphonal Chant Book', a pioneering work on the subject of half-verse chanting. Stowell Church had had a flourishing choir since about 1808.
Poole's papers include the record of a visit made by 'A London Organist' to Stowell Rectory in 1895. He walked from Templecombe station along a track still used today:
"... / entered boldly on this track, instinctively feeling that it led in the right direction. The walk was a charming one, skirting as it did some beautiful woods and game preserves... At some little distance to the left lay the main line, along which several fast trains dashed by in opposite directions. The cart-track in due time ended in a stone quarry, and at a very short distance beyond that I could see the church tower and parsonage whither I was bound."
This visitor was asked to play the organ at a church service conducted by Poole, and was pleased to find that Stowell still had a church orchestra. Most small parish churches had abandoned their orchestras some 50 years before:
" The man who had been sitting next to me suddenly changed his position to a seat facing east and commenced tuning a violincello; two of the choir boys produced violins from some place under their seats, and I perceived another violin and a viola in the hands of other choristers, whilst the Rector held a flute to his lips. We began the hymn, which was sung very heartily by choir and congregation, the band accompanying. The effect was delightful..."
Poole also kept notes about the church's history, and recorded a number of features inside the building - such as the monumental stones in the floor - probably as part of the research he undertook while drawing up plans for improvements in 1890.
Stowell Parishioners in the front garden of the Rectory (cica. 1880)
The Church Building
The oldest remaining portion of Stowell church is the west tower and the arch that connects it with the nave, which date from the fifteenth century. The upper section of the tower was renovated in the eighteenth century and the bells were recast in 1815. The tower and the bellcage were restored in 1929.
The rest of the church - a small, plain, square structure with two windows on the north wall - was renovated in 1834 by a builder called John Green from Sherborne who raised the walls and put on a new roof. His final bill for this work was £90. It is possible that a wooden gallery was built in front of the tower at this time as they were fashionable then and the church's extra height would have allowed for it.
The Rev. Poole carried out further improvements at Stowell church. He arranged for the removal of 'an unsightly Gallery blocking out the (tower) arch' in 1890. In the same year he instigated a new flooring and seating plan. His drawings featured new wooden pews which, on the northern side, were to be allocated to specific parishioners - Hansford, Moorse, Day, Hiscock, Snook, Louch and Raymond. There are still Hansfords and Moorses living in Stowell today.
The nave and chancel standing today were built in 1913 in local hamstone and slate roofing tiles. The architects were Bligh Bond and Anderson from Glastonbury, the Diocesan architects. Apparently the original building had become unsound and when it was demolished the reason for this became obvious. The church had no foundations. The new building was wider and its length was increased to the east by 16 feet. The total cost of the rebuilding was about £1,000. The Western Gazette ran a long piece about the reconsecration of Stowell Church, on June 13, 1913, and included the following description:
"The general style of the new work follows as closely as possible the type of the Somerset church of the simpler order. The general rule of the work is of XV century pattern."
The Church Exterior
The upper portion of the tower is embattled with eighteenth century style obelisk finials on each corner. The belfry windows are also eighteenth century and the inscription a little lower down on the west wall of the tower reads:
WM
L H
1748
This refers to the two churchwardens who were involved with the rebuilding of the tower in 1748 -Lawrence Hooper and William Mogg. On the south east corner of the tower is a small gargoyle which may date from the early nineteenth century, although its left wing has been more recently restored.
The Porch
The porch was built in 1913 and is on the south side of the nave. It features a 'well-moulded perpendicular arch' leading into the porch and 'a romanesque inner door arch' leading from the porch into the nave. The latter is a 1913 copy of a Norman chevron pattern arch, although it seems that two pieces of stone from an earlier arch were found in the walls of the old church and have been incorporated into the inner porch arch.
The Pews
The oak pews in the nave were commissioned by the Rev. Poole in 1890 for the nineteenth century building and replaced in the church after it was rebuilt in 1913.
The Font
(Sketch by Penelope Burns)
The font is on the left just inside the inner porch door. Poole's 1890 plans show it positioned on the right of the porch door, so it was probably moved in 1913 to its present location.
The stone font itself is probably twelfth century, although its wrought iron cover was made to commemorate the death of Poole in 1898. Close to the font is a small window of gothic style that may have been saved from the old church. The panelling behind the pews near the font are Georgian and may also have come from the old church.
The Pulpit
The stone pulpit on the north wall of the nave is unusual in that it is built into the wall of the 1913 church. It seems to have particularly impressed the same reporter from the Western Gazette:
"Among internal features is a richly worked stone pulpit with a series of traceried panels containing niches, built into the north wall and approached by a winding staircase in the wall, through a doubled arched entry. The upper arch, which admits to the pulpit, is surmounted by a canopy with finely carved foliated head, making a striking feature from the nave."
The Chancel
The chancel is entered through a carved wooden screen which was also made for the 1913 building.
Photographs of the interior of the nineteenth century building show a rather fine metal screen which did not survive.
The oak box stalls in the chancel include some Georgian panelling similar to the panelling near the font, which are probably remnants from the earlier building. They are of different sizes, suggesting that they may have been cut to fit the spaces available. The two stalls just inside the screen have carved pew ends. One - a most unusual rustic carving of a chicken - is dated 1670, and must have been rescued from the nineteenth century building. The other carving was made to match the 1670 carving in 1913 and features a cockerel.
Carved Pew End, 1670 (sketch by Penelope Burns)
The chancel floor is laid with black and white tiles set on a diagonal. The chancel roof - like the nave roof - has an arched panelled ceiling which is divided into rectangular compartments with wooden ribs. In the chancel the compartments are painted a rich blue and decorated with gold stars. The ceiling has been recently restored (1990) and the decoration follows that of the original 1913 design.
The organ in the centre of the chancel was originally placed near the north wall of the chancel. It is an Estey American organ and was in use in the previous building because the 'London Organist' who visited Poole in 1895 played it during a service and expressed surprise that the church had no pipe organ.
There are three stained glass windows in the chancel. The east window has five lights and is dedicated to Henry Rudge Hayward who died in 1912. Its subject is Christ on the Cross with Mary Magdalene at his feet. The two small south windows are both double lights and are dated around 1890 and 1931. They are dedicated to members of the Dodington family who lived at Horsington House and had connections with Stowell stretching back to the eighteenth century.
The 1931 window is dedicated to Brigadier General William Dodington who died in April 1931. The 1890 window is dedicated to Thomas Marriott Dodington who was the rector at Stowell from 1827 until 1867. This window had originally been placed in one of the north windows of the nineteenth century building.
The West Tower
The tower is similar to those of other small Somerset churches. It is plain, square and embattled. Much of the tower, and the arch that connects it to the nave, are fifteenth century. The floor tiles are Victorian and were probably installed by Reverend Poole in 1890 as part of his renovations. Certainly there is an inscription below the window above the west door that dates the tiles, the pews and the window to 1890. The upper part of the tower was renovated in 1748, although by the early twentieth century it had become unsound. In 1815 the three bells were recast by James Wells of Aldbourne and the tower and bellcage were restored in 1929 as a memorial to Marion Elizabeth Francis who had died in Gibraltar in 1927 aged 21. She had lived at nearby Wilkinthroop House.