©Carol Moule



THE CHURCH

OF

ST. ANDREW, CHEW MAGNA

by Ian L. Durham M.B.E.

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  In the floor of the chapel are several monumental slabs of great historical interest, which came to light when a Victorian floor was removed. All are of Dundry stone eight or nine inches thick and they show signs of considerable wear. Reading the inscriptions is difficult but most of them relate to the St Lo family and the Lombardic lettering indicates a date of about 1340. This chapel also contains the only examples of mediaeval glass, of the 15th century, remaining in the church. It has been incorporated into the upper part of the window on the south wall.

In this chapel a modern memorial commemorates Thomas Minor who emigrated from the village in 1629 and achieved distinction in the American colonies. His descendants in the *Thomas Minor Society return in organised parties to visit his birthplace every few years and the village continues to enjoy close links with this family, now scattered all over north America.

*see www.tmsociety.org the Official Site of the Thomas Minor Society




The unusual effigy in the south aisle, of a knight in mid-15th century armour, lying in a most uncomfortable position, has given rise to many theories. It is certainly not of Sir John de Hautville as the name underneath would suggest: the last of that name died two hundred years before that kind of armour was worn. But it may be of a descendant, possibly Sir William Cheney of Norton Malreward, wearing armour of the time of Henry V. However, the wrong attribution goes back a long time because Collinson in 1791 refers to it as "the Sir John Hauteville effigy". Pevsner was not impressed and thought it was "an Elizabethan attempt at appearing ancient".

The figure is said to be of solid Irish oak, one of less than a hundred known in the country, one of only two in the old county of Somerset, and it was certainly re-painted in the 1860s, it is reliably stated "without any regard to the original work". It seems to have been brought in to the mother church when the chantry chapel at Norton Hawkfield was demolished about 1547, and the strange position of the lion at the feet of the knight must be the result of the very cramped site in that chapel.

The royal coat of arms is in a very prominent position above the chancel arch. Such arms were first introduced into churches after the restoration, presumably to remind worshippers that the sovereign was now head of the church, the Defender of the Faith. In Cromwell's day they were removed, but after the Reformation it was enacted that they should be replaced in all churches. The present arms, painted on plaster and in an elaborate Jacobean setting, are those of Charles II.

The memorial to Sarah Lyde on the porch wall of the north aisle seems to claim that she died in 1662 aged 131 years, but research shows that she only lived to 31 years. Early references to the memorial (e.g. Collinsori in 1791) give the correct age. So when did someone alter the stone to add 100 years to her age, and why?"