Church Heritage Record 601515

West tower, nave with north porch, chancel with south chapel.

The earliest information about the parish is contained in the Domesday book, when it was held by Dodo (from whom the village presumably got its name) in succession to Siwold. The manor was held by the Dodington family from the late C12 to 1720, after which it continued through various related branches. The economic basis for the village was mixed agriculture: there may have been open-field arable in the northern part of the parish, where a furlong was recorded c. 1200, and a small piece of common pasture between Perry mill and Barnsworthy. Most of the common land lay on the Quantocks. Mining for copper began in the parish before 1712 and continued throughout the C18.

There were 73 taxpayers in 1667. The growing use of the road from the late C17 increased settlement, and there were more houses along the road than in the village by 1791. The population of the parish was 71 in 1801, and rose to 113 in 1821, the last year of mining. After fluctuations in the 1830s and 1840s the total fell rapidly in the 1860s, though by 1881 it had recovered to 91. Thereafter there was a steady decline, but no separate figures for the ecclesiastical parish are available after 1911, when the total was 60.

There was a church at Dodington by the late C12 with its own living, but no fabric of this building survives, except, perhaps, for the plan of the nave. By 1335 it was described as a chapelry, and was later dependent on Nether Stowey, which the VCH suggests was probably the source of its original foundation. By 1473 it was a rectory, appointed to by the lords of the manor.

The earliest surviving parts of the fabric are the porch, the chancel, and the lower stages of the tower which were added in the C15. Fragments of high-quality late medieval glass, featuring the heads of the Virgin, Christ and three angels remain in the east window of the chancel. The nave fabric cannot be dated, but the windows are of the C16, when the roof was also added. A plaque in the gable end of the south chapel shows that it was built as a Dodington family chapel in 1610. The top stage of the tower is probably of the C15, and record of it being renewed in 1772 was limited to the segmental arched bell openings, which are Georgian in character and show signs of being later additions. Most of the interior furnishings were added in the 1870s.

The churchyard is entered through a lychgate to the north, built on a low stone wall with timber struts and slate roof. The inscription records that it was built in memory of those who died in WWI, and includes the inscription ‘GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS’.

The porch is not rendered, and built of red sandstone ashlar with a plinth around the exterior. It has a pitched roof and no windows. The entrance arch has deep double-ogee mouldings, below a panel with worn armorial bearings contained within two quatrefoils. The interior is rendered and painted, with a stone bench built into the wall and the original flagstones. It is accessed by a single step. It has a wagon roof, with purlins and bosses. A stoop in the southwest corner has Perpendicular-style panels and a pink stone shaft.

The nave is rendered, with red sandstone ashlar window jambs and labels, and quoins left exposed. Both north and south walls have two windows: one three- and one two-light square-headed window, all with labels. Each light has trefoil cusping and sunken spandrels, the style is of the early C16. It has diagonal buttresses to the east with two set offs and is abutted by the tower to the west. Decorative iron plaques on the exterior to the east hold in place an interior tie-beam for the chancel arch. The exterior eastern wall is visible and in poor condition. The north door, inside the porch, is moulded in exposed ashlar. Above it is a niche, presumably once occupied by a statue. The door is probably C20 but has strap hinges and decorative ironmongery.

Internally, the original C15 wagon roof survives, with arched braces, purlins, ridge rib, and battlemented wall plate. There are several floriated square bosses, one containing the Dodington arms. The original large medieval chancel arch is extant. The interior is rendered and painted. The aisle floors are in red and black tiles; beneath the pews are parquet floors; and the chancel step is of stone flags.

The nave pews are of 1874 and simple in style. The choir stalls are decorated with attractive Tudor roses and wing motifs. Those in the chapel are identified by the listing description as being original, that is, of 1610, but are surely Victorian. They are plain in style with sunken panels in the pew ends containing trefoil headed arches. The pew platforms have been much altered, the churchwarden noted that these were recently pulled up by an archaeologist in order to examine the Dodington vault but so badly damaged in the process that they had to be replaced.

The two-stage west tower is almost square in plan, with a square vice to the northeast. It is built of rubble with ashlar quoins. The upper stages are usually dated to 1772 but appear to be original with only the bell openings of the C18. It has a plinth and battlements. The west doorway and window are the finest in the church. The former is boarded up but retains good mouldings and a deeply cut label. The two-centred window has three cinquefoiled lights, Perpendicular sub-reticulations, and a label with original headstops.

The chancel is also rendered, with two-light square-headed windows to north and south in a late C14 style, each light having a trefoiled ogee head and pierced spandrels. They are evidently Victorian but hopefully faithful copies of the originals. The east window is also evidently a later replacement, almost identical to that in the south chapel. Both are of three lights in two-centred arches with Perpendicular reticulation units. They have labels with renewed headstops. The interior is rendered and painted, with severe damp in the east wall. There is a large aumbry and single piscina to the south, and two brackets for statues to left and right of the east window. The floor is tiled with a sanctuary step. It has a modern roof with collars resting on arched braces and three purlins. Like the nave, the wall plates are castellated although here they support wall posts.

The south chapel is rendered, with the quoins left exposed. The east window is like that in the chancel but presumably Victorian and not of the C17. Above the window is a panel containing armorial iconography, including the Dodington hunting horns, the date 1610, and the letters GD and ID. The south door has a Tudor arch and exposed ashlar jambs. The door has elaborate strap hinges with fleur-de-lys, decorative iron work, and a drop handle. The chapel connects with the nave through an arch with panelled soffit, in an interesting C17 version of Perpendicular, with curved semi-capitals. The interior is render with masonry lines, and panelling at dado level.