_Pennard, East_, a village 1-1/2 m. N.W. from Pylle Station (S. and
D.). There is a painful neatness about this little group of cottages
characteristic of a manorial appurtenance. The church, which partakes
of the same trimness, is Perp. The tower is of rather an unusual type,
being low and squat, and unrelieved by battlements. The staircase is
only a flat projection on the S. side, carried half way up. Upon the N.
face of the tower is a Tudor rose (cp. Marston Magna). Note (1) stoups
in S. porch and outside N. door; (2) Jacobean stalls; (3) piscina and
aumbry; (4) niche in E. wall of N. aisle; (5) richly carved square
font. The nave retains its original 15th cent. roof supported on large
corbels. In the churchyard is the shaft of a cross. A good view is
obtainable from the neighbouring Wrax Hill.
_Pennard, West_, a village 5 m. S. from Shepton Mallet, with a station
on S. and D. line to Glastonbury. The church, which stands some little
distance away, is a large and strikingly handsome Perp. building of
uniform design (_temp._ Edward IV.). The W. tower carries a lead spire.
Its chief interest is its general comeliness. It has neither chapels
nor monuments. One or two features, however, are deserving of notice:
(1) good screen; (2) large squint (containing rood stairway) on N.; (3)
corresponding doorway on S.; (4) stoup at W. doorway. In the churchyard
is a good cross bearing emblems of the Passion on its base (cp.
Doulting).
_Penselwood_, a parish 4 m. N.E. of Wincanton. It occupies high ground,
which in early times has been strongly defended. Hard by are the
British earthwork known as Cenwealh's Castle, and the Norm, moated
mound called Orchard Castle. In the neighbourhood, too, are Pen-Pits,
circular cavities in the ground (extending over 200 acres), which are
believed to have been excavated for the purpose of obtaining
grindstones. The parish church, mainly Perp., retains a Norm. S. door
(note the carving on the lintel) and a Norm. font; and over the gable
of a door in the S. wall is another piece of carving (the Virgin and
Child and two kneeling figures), which probably was, once part of the
cross. There are some bits of early glass in one of the windows. One of
the bells is said to date from the 13th cent.
_Pensford_, a village with a station on the G.W.R. Frome and Bristol
line. It lies immediately at the foot of a lofty viaduct, which
commands a pretty prospect of the valley of the Chew. Like other places
on the bank of a stream, the village was once the centre of a brisk
cloth trade. The church has been rebuilt, but contains a Jacobean
pulpit and a Perp. font (cp. Dundry). The inverted fragment of a
piscina may be seen in the churchyard, built into the wall of a shed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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