Yeovil's Virtual Museum

A conjectured development

of Yeovil's parish churches

 

It is believed that Yeovil’s original Anglo-Saxon minster church was located within a large precinct, or burial ground - shown green on the map below. In today’s terms, it would have stretched from Princes Street in the west all the way to Silver Street in the east, and from North Lane at the north to a line somewhat halfway between Church Street and High Street to the south. Church Street and Church Path, shown on the map as grey lines, are much later and would not have appeared until after the medieval period.

The minster church, known to have existed at least from 950AD but certainly much earlier, would have stood roughly in the centre of the precinct. This would likely have been little more than a tiny chancel and a small nave, built in timber under a thatched roof. It may, however, have had a porticus (or even several) - the side-chapels common at Anglo-Saxon minster churches, frequently used for the more important burials.

The Anglo-Saxon minster church was almost certainly rebuilt by the Normans (see here), since it is recorded in 1226 as "the great church of Gyvele".

It is likely that by the time of the Norman rebuild, the idea of a minster church had all but disappeared. The new church, just a simple parish church, would probably have been enlarged over time and the minster church precinct gradually encroached on by secular buildings, along today’s Princes Street for example.

As work began on Robert de Sambourne’s new church in 1380, the old church was likely still being dismantled, explaining why today’s church is on one side of the former church precinct. Much of the stone of the old church was probably re-used in the new church. Note, on the plan below, that the orientation of today’s church fabric is oriented 16 degrees south of east (for an explanation, see here).

It is thought that the site of the quarry from which much of the stone was extracted, presumably for both churches, lay to the north of the site in the area between today’s North Lane and Court Ash. The ‘Yeovil stone’ derived from this quarry is a very poor-wearing Upper Lias Limestone that has deteriorated through the centuries, unlike the superb honey-coloured Ham Hill stone used for the dressings.

Construction of the church we see today, began with the crypt at the eastern end. As the height of the crypt was established (it being only half below ground level), it was possible to then determine the floor level of the sanctuary, chancel, choir and nave with the subsequent setting out of the foundations. On completion of the crypt, the above-ground works were carried out, from east to west.

The tower was not erected until around the year 1480. It was traditional for the tower foundations to be completed and the stone for the tower to be cut and stored on site during one year. The winter would allow time for the foundations to settle. The following spring, building work on the tower would commence. Usually, the ornate Perpendicular Gothic Somerset towers would be completed in one season.

 

 

This plan features in my book 'The Church of St John the Baptist, Yeovil - a History and Guide'.

A conjectured plan indicating the size of the Anglo-Saxon minster church precinct (shown in green), with its church at the centre. The Norman church would probably have been built at the same location. At the time of the Anglo-Saxon minster church, the churchyard wall we see today didn’t exist - just a simple, yet steep, earth bank described the extent of the precinct on at least two sides. Today’s North Lane possibly didn’t exist at the time.

Under a charter of King John, in 1205, Yeovil gained a market although, of course, the market tolls were taken by the lord. Later, in 1275-6, the market being held in Yeovil was recorded as ‘prescriptive’, that is to say, held by custom and not set up by a grant or charter, and in this case the tolls went to the church, causing a decades-long dispute. Master Walter Mautravers, parson of the church of Yeovil successfully claimed that the market pertained to the church of Yeovil and that he and his predecessors, parsons of the church, had held the market from “time out of mind”. In the 1334 Lay Subsidy, Yeovil’s market was reckoned to be worth in excess of £48 per annum (around £45,000 at today's value), an enormous sum for the time.