THE CHURCH
OF
ST. ANDREW, CHEW MAGNA

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There are some fine gargoyles and grotesques on the tower and on the corners of the roof. Especially interesting is the anthropophagus, the demon eating the human being, on the corner near the north porch.

Fives was a popular ball game, often played in churchyards because it required a high wall against which the ball could be bounced. The base of the tower was used for this purpose and in 1749 the vestry agreed "to set up posts in the fives place to prevent that play in the future". However, it relented and two months later there was a further decision "to put window shutters towards the Fives Places".

The north porch is in many ways similar to the south porch but is later and of finer workmanship. An Inspecting Architect for the Department of the Environment has described it as "exquisite". Notable are the delicate pinnacles bearing many small gargoyles and the seated figure in the centre above the door. Inside, the fine doorway and the piscina suggest that this entrance was considerably used.

In the churchyard is a listed ancient monument, the shaft of a preaching cross on its steps, which tradition says was once in the market place outside the churchyard.

Adjacent is the Old Schoolroom, completed in 1510 and little changed since. The upstairs has the fine original timber roof of eleven bays, and downstairs can be seen the site of the wide fireplace in which the ale would be brewed for the churchwardens' ales, one of the main sources of church income in those days. This building for many years housed a school upstairs and the  poor house down below.

Near to the gate is the base of another cross but this one has been turned over and was called the resting stone because bearers used to rest the coffin on it on their way to the church. One of the many interesting gravestones, situated between the tower and the old vicarage wall, commemorates Mr William Fowler, who was shot by a highwayman on Dundry Hill on the 14th June 1814.

There was, in the 15th century, another building in the churchyard, but no traces remain. In wills of the period local inhabitants left sheep, money and wedding rings to 'the Chapel of the Blessed Lady in the churchyard at Chew'. Such legacies ceased after 1546 and the chapel may have been destroyed after the Chantries Act the following year.

The church of St Andrew is listed as a building of special architectural and historic interest, Grade I, and in the churchyard several of the chest tombs, mainly of early or mid-Cl8th date, are listed as Grade II. The steps and the shaft of the old cross are classified as an Ancient Monument.