St Mary's Church, East Brent

The church of St Mary the Virgin in East Brent dates from c1300, but it probably replaced an earlier church.  The tower and spire were added c1400.  John Selwood, who was Abbot of Glastonbury 1456-1493, was also vicar of East Brent 1467-1493.  He brought lots of carved medieval bench ends with him from Glastonbury Abbey.

The carvings on the bench ends include an amphisbaena (double-headed dragon) in the shape of John Selwood's initials (Ioannes Selwood); some primitive heads; the winged ox of St Luke; a pelican feeding her young with her own blood; the Annunciation; a lamb and the eagle of St John.

The font is a copy of the ancient font at Rowberrow, which is reputed to have originally come from East Brent.  The lectern dates from the 15th century and is a wooden sculpture of an eagle. The Jacobean pulpit was made in 1634 and is made of carved oak.  The stained glass window above the altar in the chancel was given in memory of Sarah Reed, the daughter of the Lord of the Manor of East Brent, who died in 1857.

The wooden west gallery was originally part of the rood screen which spanned the chancel arch.  It was converted into a gallery in 1824.  It wasn't wide enough, so the village carpenter inserted a middle section.  It is supported on 4 carved elm pillars.

The plaster ceiling of the nave dates from 1637 and features an unusual design - blackberry thorns with ribs that connect diamond shaped panels, which are in turn connected by three pendants.  

Reverend George Anthony Denison was Vicar of East Brent for 51 years 1845-1896.  After an epidemic of diphtheria in the parish, he provided the village with its first supply of clean drinking water by damming the stream on Brent Knoll.  Together with churchwarden John Higgs he also founded the East Brent Harvest Home in 1857.  It is still celebrated every year in late August.  A memorial to him is located on the wall of the  north aisle.

Three sculptures are located on the west wall of the tower representing the Virgin & Child, the Trinity and Christ crowning the Blessed Virgin.  There is a scratch or mass dial on one of the buttresses.

St Mary's Church

Decorated plaster ceiling

West gallery

One of the carved elm pillars holding up the west gallery

Pulpit

Sedilia - stone seats for priests

Wooden eagle lectern

Memorial to George Denison

Pelican feeding her young

John Selwood's initial with an amphisbaena forming the S for Selwood

Lamb

The Annunciation

Winged ox of St Luke

Primitive heads

Eagle of St John

Scratch or mass dial

Effigy in the north aisle

This may be 14th century priest or possibly Martin de Summa, who fought on behalf of the local monks 1160-70 against the unscrupulous Bishop Severac.

Chancel window in memory of Sarah Reed

Elizabeth Goudge, writer

Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge was born in Wells on 24th April 1900.  She was the only child of Reverend Henry Goudge and his wife Ida de Beauchamp Collenette, who came from Guernsey.  Henry Goudge was Vice Principal of Wells Theological College and they lived in Tower House (also known as The Rib) in St Andrew Street. Elizabeth was taught at home by a governess.

In 1911 Henry Goudge accepted the job of Principal at Ely Theological College and the family moved to Ely.  Elizabeth boarded at Grassendale School in Southbourne, Bournemouth and later studied at the art school at University College Reading.  

In 1923 Henry Goudge was appointed Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University and the family moved to Oxford.  Henry bought a bungalow in Barton-on-Sea in Hampshire, as his wife was unwell and unhappy in Oxford and Mrs Goudge spent the summers there.  Elizabeth worked as a handicraft teacher in Oxford, but she began writing plays, poems and later novels in her spare time. 

Elizabeth's first novel to be published was Island Magic, which was inspired by her childhood holidays with her grandparents in Guernsey.  It was published by Duckworth in 1934.  In 1936 A City of Bells, which was set in Wells, was published.  Towers in the Mist, which was published in 1938, was set in Oxford.

Henry Goudge died suddenly at Barton-on-Sea in 1939 and Elizabeth and her mother moved to a bungalow in Marldon, Devon, where they lived for the next 12 years.  In 1944 Green Dolphin Country was published.  This novel was made into a film called Green Dolphin Street in 1947.   In 1946, Elizabeth Goudge's most famous children's novel, The Little White Horse was published.  It won the Carnegie Medal for children's fiction in 1947.

After her mother's death in 1951, Elizabeth moved to Rose Cottage, Dog Lane, Peppard Common near Henley-on-Thames.  She continued to write novels for adults and children.  Her final novel, Child from the Sea was published in 1970.  Her autobiography, Joy of the Snow, was published in 1974.  Elizabeth Goudge never married and she lived in Rose Cottage with her female companion Jessie Munroe until her death on 1st April 1984. 

A blue plaque on Rose Cottage was unveiled in 2008.  There is also a blue plaque on Tower House/The Rib in Wells. 

Blue plaque on The Rib, St Andrew Street, Wells

The Rib

Rose Cottage, Peppard Common