St Bartholomew's Church, Lyng Explained

Church of St Bartholomew
Location Town:Lyng
Location Country:England
Completion Date:14th century
Map Type:Somerset
Coordinates:51.0553°N -2.9537°W

The Church of St Bartholomew at East Lyng in the parish of Lyng, Somerset, England dates from the 14th century and has been designated as a Grade I listed building.

The Anglican church is dedicated to St Bartholomew, and is thought to have been built by the monks who were displaced from Athelney Abbey when it was dissolved by King Henry VIII of England in 1539.[1] It stands on the site of an earlier fortress.[2]

The ornate three-stage tower, which was built around 1497,[3] is of lias with hamstone dressings supported by set-back buttresses connected diagonally across the angles of the tower on the bottom two stages; these terminate as diagonal pinnacles on shafts at the third stage. The paired two-light bell-chamber windows have Somerset tracery flanked by attached shafts and pinnacles, with quatrefoil grilles. There are similar single windows on the stage below.[4] On the stonework are hunky punks representing dragons with the one on the left side of the west face being a mixture between a Basilisk or Cockatrice and a Griffin.[5]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Lyng - Church . 8 March 2008 . British History Online .
  2. Book: Dunning. Robert. Fifty Somerset Churches. 1996. Somerset Books. 978-0861833092. 12.
  3. Book: Poyntz Wright, Peter. The Parish Church Towers of Somerset, Their construction, craftsmanship and chronology 1350 - 1550. 1981. Avebury Publishing Company. 0-86127-502-0.
  4. Web site: Church of St Bartholomew, Lyng . 8 March 2008 . historicengland.org.uk .
  5. Book: Wright. Peter Poyntz. Hunky Punks: A Study in Somerset Stone Carving. 2004. Heart of Albion Press. 978-1872883755. 2. 29–41.