St John the Baptist
Axbridge, Somerset
A long flight of steps leading up to it from the town square gives great presence to this distinguished looking limestone building whose walls are topped with a parapet of intricately pierced stonework.
It is mostly a 15th century rebuilding of a much earlier church. There may have been a Saxon church here: it is known that Wedmore was part of an estate belonging to the Saxon kings of Wessex, and King Alfred had a house nearby.
Inside, the church is spacious and airy, with slender pillars and high ceilings in the side aisles. The congregation was large: a 1547 record tells of 1,000 communicants at one service. Do take time to look at the detailing on the church's exterior, which includes many good gargoyles.
St Mary's porch has two rooms, one above the other, probably used by priests at one time.
The porch shelters a beautiful reused 13th century doorway, and also a door that has 13th century hinges and the initials, marked out in nail heads, of the church wardens who had the door remade in 1677.
