Church of St Mary, Bridgwater

A church is recorded at the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, however, it is not known either the location of this early structure or its history. The earliest record of a church on the present site is from 1107, when the church's revenue was granted to Bath Priory by the wife of Walter de Douai, following his death. In 1180, Walter's grandson Fulk Pagnell, who owned the manor and the land the church was built on, granted the latter to Marmoutiers Abbey, near Tours, France. The first vicar of the church is recorded a few years later, in 1187.

The interior has a polychromatic Victorian tiled and modern blue lias stone floor, dating from 1878 and 2017 respectively. The chancel has a 15th century panelled barrel vaulted ceiling with moulded braces. Every fourth brace is richly decorated, resting on angels with outstretched wings. The chancel ceiling has 70 carved bosses dating from 1385-1416 with some additions in the Victorian era, depicting a wide range of topics including flora such as ferns, Christian symbols such as the Star of David, and mythical creatures like unicorns. The bosses were cleaned and restored from 2016-2017 to remove layers of residue. The chancel window is blocked by a great altarpiece, comprising a rare 17th…

THOMAS STRETE 1528-1571 became Vicar of Saint Mary's on 11 August 1528, when the Church was still Roman Catholic. He had been Vicar for only a few years when the King, Henry VIII, proclaimed himself head of a Protestant Church of England. Thomas therefore became the first Protestant Vicar of Saint Mary's. When be became Vicar in 1528, Catholic religious customs were in full power. The Church contained several Chantries, each with its own priest; masses and anniversaries were celebrated and the Church was a blaze of colour and light, with probably as many as ten altars. Inventories survive in the Borough Archives of elaborate Communion plate and of sets of coloured vestments. With the…