Welcome to our Benefice, we are 3 churches grouped together in the Cheddar Valley.
We hope you can find all you need by clicking on Our Churches tab, but if there is anything else we can help with, please use one of the Get in touch pages and we will do our best to help.
View benefice homepageWelcome to our page! We hope you can find all you need, but if there is anything else please use the Get in touch page.
Welcome to our page! We hope you can find all you need, but if there is anything else please get in touch.
St Peter’s was consecrated in 1861, so is relatively recent compared to our sister churches. It is a grade II listed building with some interesting features, notably an intricate wrought iron rood screen (added in 1894), and some pleasing stained glass windows in the apse featuring the life of St Peter. The font is by the renowned Victorian architect William Burges, perhaps best known for Cardiff Castle. How the font came to be in our church remains rather a mystery, but Burges’ neo-gothic style is well illustrated by the carvings on its four sides, showing the ages of man.
Pews were removed in the 1960s, and a kitchen area and toilet installed. This has made the church a highly flexible space for different formats of services, as well as for social functions, concerts and the like. It also opens its doors to the adjacent Draycott and Rodney Stoke Church of England First School, whose pupils regularly use it for assemblies, end of term functions and the odd music practice.
We are participating in the ‘Wilder Churches’ initiative (a collaboration between the Diocese of Bath and Wells and the Somerset Wildlife Trust), and are proud of our spring flowers and wildlife refuges in the churchyard. Some parts of the churchyard are left unmown to encourage flowers during parts of the summer.
The church is open every day for visitors except Wednesdays, when it is locked.
Welcome to our page! We hope you can find all you need, but if there is anything else please get in touch.
St Leonard's is a Grade One, small, medieval church situated at the western end of the village. The church was first built in the 12th century and has been added to over the centuries.
It has many visitors throughout the year, some of whom come from overseas. The church has some remarkable features inside. Most notably are the four monuments to the Rodney family in the chapel built in the 15th century. The pews in the nave, which seat about 80 people, have beautiful bench ends originally carved by the villagers. One of the stained glass windows, which has been recently restored, commemorates the safe return of the men and women who took part in the First World War and is known as the Thanksgiving Window.
