Minimalist... Beyond Puritan... Mouse seem to have discovered English Renaissance neo-Gothic Bauhaus. Now that Ladles and Jellyspoons is Fusion Architecture with a capital FA #StMarySaltford #Somerset

Tell me you're a reconstructed C17 arch without telling me.... The arch sits on medieval responds and bases all of which are lightly lime plastered and washed #StMarySaltford #Somerset for #StoneworkSunday #SundayStonework

By chancel arch, north #StMarySaltford #Somerset for #SundaySermons A more modern assemblage of recycles C17 panels but nonetheless a rather fine place to preach

South of nave #StMarySaltford #Somerset for #StainedGlassSunday St. Lawrence. To prove that not all early C19 glass is terrible. An exception that proves the rule

Sanctuary... #StMarySaltford #Somerset for #StainedGlassSunday

Ἰησοῦς... In Christian iconography; ihs, the pelican and the Lamb of God (Angus Dei) #StMarySaltford #Somerset for #StainedGlassSunday

Not my best side.... The church of #StMarySaltford #Somerset is another simple church; tower, nave, chancel, C19 vestry and lean-to and not a trace of a porch to invite Mouse to pop in for a poke (sad Mouse)

Welcome to the beautiful little church of St. Mary in Saltford. Norman origins, the usual C13 and C15 alterations. The church suffered the ravages of the Civil War and possibly worse damage during the C19 renovation. Little remains of the original #StMarySaltford #Somerset

A last look back at #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset #StaircaseSaturday

Mouse often try to find a photo that in some way encapsulates the spirit of the church for her #MouseFavouritePhoto. This sums up #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset quite well. Very mysterious, very interesting and just a little bit wonky

And as #FontsMeanFarewell, what of the church of #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset? A small church perhaps but definitely an architectural riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. If you love decoding buildings you'll love this church and in a beautiful location too #MusVisit 🐭🐭🐭🐭

And as #FontsMeanFarewell, Mouse move on to the next church on the #ScamperUpTheSomersetAvon. A warm spring day, a blue sky full of white fluffy clouds and deep in the Somerset countryside #SteepleSaturday

By south door. West #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset for #FontsOnFriday Norman. C12. Lovely

The enduring allure of #ChurchDoorFittings #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset for #FerrousFriday External door, south porch. Latch, lift, keep, escutcheon and brackets. Not as old as you might hope. Certainly the bevel between the planks suggest not medieval or Early Modern

Mouse's #FridaysBitsAndPieces from #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset. All of the bits and pieces Mouse didn't share in the week: a special place. From this ancient place of worship on this gentle rise, a view across countryside, towns, villages, a city and the sea

South porch door label #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset for #FridaysFacesInStone Authentically weathered C13 headstops. Sightless eyes bearing witness to 800 years of the Christian Faith

Mouse's #FridaysBitsAndPieces from #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset. All of the bits and pieces Mouse didn't get to share in the week: Nave. The simplest kind of medieval pitch roof. Common rafters with collars but no ridge or purlins

Mouse's #FridaysBitsAndPieces from #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset. All of the bits and pieces Mouse didn't get to share in the week: much eroded possible partial mass dial on the left jamb of the south porch (facing). Likely C13

A rather unusual #WestDoorAndWindowCombo from #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset for #AdoorableThursday This tower is an enigma. Norman with later window and door added (C15/C16) or an entire C18 rebuild replacing an original C12 tower? These don't look later additions to Mouse

Tower #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset for #AdoorableThursday Another pseudo-4-centred arch, another C15 double planked door, another failure to measure the hole before cutting the wood

A church with the most intrusive and inappropriate wiring for a heritage building Mouse ever seen. Medieval masonry peppered with holes (often still containing raw plugs) from previous wiring. A heinous crime #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset #DoorwayThursday #ChurchWiringNightmare

As if the south porch doorway wasn't strange enough, the top section of the door was hinged for some reason (Mouse not know why) and relatively recently plates have been fitted to remove that facility (look at the fixings) #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset for #AdoorableThursday

Not wonky, not scrumpy (as Mouse's earlier post suggested), but deliberate... #NerdyMouseAlert This is a reused arch (#Spolia) curtailed and slightly rotated to make it narrow enough to fit the porch. To do that the jamb and screwback are raised on the right #StMartinNorthStoke

South porch, interior. To nave #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset for #AdoorableThursday It might not look much but this is a lovely example of a C15 double planked door. Wide roughly hewn planks and some sizeable repairs. Sadly a few inches short of the upper pseudo-3-centred rebate

South porch #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset for #DoorwayThursday Subsidence or a bit too much scrumpy before work? Left and right of this segmental pointed arch and label are offset by 10cm or so. Mouse often wonder how much deformation is required before the cracks start to show

#FromInsideOut #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset for #WindowsOnWednesday

The eagle eyed will probably already have noticed the distinctive beaded pink pointing of #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset. C19 and early C20 renovations more often than not involved scraping and then repointing with varying degrees of taste and aesthetic quality #WallsOnWednesday

Tower #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset for #WallsOnWednesday Very finely dressed and laid masonry of the tower, claimed as C12. Continuous courses of varying thickness some of the stones are cut at an angle to bond tower and turret (blue). Note also the sharpness of the turret aris

North elevations #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset for #WallsOnWednesday Three very distinct construction methods; chancel (left) in loosely coursed rubble stone, nave (centre) in rubble stone and the tower in dressed coursed stone blocks. A somewhat mysterious timeline

South of nave #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset for #WindowsOnWednesday Paired pointed single lights with common label. Victorian pastiche of Early English window that somehow sticks out on like the sorest of sore thumbs

From east #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset for #TraceryTuesday A pure C19 construction. Decorated-style at first glance but sadly the designer couldn't help adding a little frisson of #UberGothic. Even the cusps have terminals

It's no wonder that the church of #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset is subsiding, the ground on which it stands is obviously unstable. Even the grave markers and chest tombs are slowly sinking... #TombTuesday

A #TombWithAview... The church of #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset stands alone on a rise giving the most amazing views in all directions and as far as the sea #TombTuesday

From the north west #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset for #TowerTuesday Small polygonal stair turret with single light #TinyWindow to each stage. Both with monolithic heads. The upper light is round headed the lower, square #NorthStokeTower Part IV of IV #TinyWindowTuesday

From the east #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset for #TowerTuesday The Norman origin of the tower is supported by the dressing and fit of the masonry and the pilaster buttresses. Two small round headed Norman-style lights can also be seen from the east #NorthStokeTower Part III of IV

There's only one view of #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset from the west and it's the #MouseEyeView, unless you want to step back and fall ten feet into a field. If the tower is Norman then west window, door, parapet and pinnacles were added much later #NorthStokeTower Part II of IV

From south #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset for #TowerTuesday Broad, squat 2-stage tower with string courses, clasping pilaster buttresses, parapet and crocketed pinnacles. Taken to be Norman dating to late C12 #NorthStokeTower Part I of IV

South of tower #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset for #MemorialMonday Fine memorial tablet, weeping woman, urn, tree (claimed as a weeping willow... it's not) and obelisk. An urn and the journal above are now lost

South of nave #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset for #MemorialMonday Large C18 memorial tablets and some rather intrusive white electrical cable. The latter evidence of a broader #ChurchWiringNightmare

The tiny church of #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset is packed with oversized C18 memorial tablets. Quite a concentration for such a small space #MemorialMonday

East from tower to nave #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset for #StonemasonryMonday The church is skewed probably due to subsidence most pronounced to the north. The sense of wonkiness is magnified by tower, nave and chancel not sitting on the same line (most dramatically seen here)

West from nave to tower #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset for #StonemasonryMonday Tower arch of significant proportions but on the verge of catastrophe. Single continuous chamfered order. Probably late C12, in the transitional period between Norman Romanesque and early Gothic

West tower #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset for #StainedGlassSunday Fairly run of the mill Victorian glass. The window is perhaps more interesting. Twin lights with segmental arch heads (but actually might be 3-centred), these could have been added as late as C17

Pulpit and curiously mismatched canopy #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset for #SundaySermons The word flimsy barely covers it. Dated to C19 but built on a budget

East through chancel arch #StMartinNorthStoke for #SundayStonework #StoneworkSunday Rubble constructed walls and roughly dressed voussoir of the pointed (but rather wayward) arch give an ancient feel although this was likely lime plastered when first built

West through chancel arch #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset And suddenly you realise that the church is slowly skewing and sinking into the earth

Sanctuary... #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset

Sacrifice... #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset for #StaindGlassSunday

Welcome to the church of St. Martin in North Stoke, Somerset. There is a little bit of everything in this porch; dressed stone up to the gable and then rubble stone to the eves and a slight wonkiness to it too. But does it contain an unlocked door? #StMartinNorthStoke #Somerset

A window for the #MouseFavouritePhoto from #StMaryBitton this week. Nice to see a Decorated period window on a scamper so dominated by Perpendicular churches and the light from the opposing window is rather lovely. And the modillions of course. Let's not forget the modillions