This amazing little country church is in the village of Puxton, North Somerset, which we found on Saturday. The Church of the Holy Saviour or sometimes referred to as St Saviour, is thought to possibley have originated in the 12th century and would have consisted of a nave and chancel only.
Over the centuries the building has been added to and in the 15th century the two staged tower was added and when you see the following photo you really wonder how it has stayed up. But stayed up it has, there is a drawing in the church of 1821 showing it leaning at that date and it also survived bomb blast damage during the Second World War, but there was no way I was going to stand at the front and take a photo. In fact it really is worse than my photo, its quite hard to get the true extent of the lean, but take if from me, its a lot.
The earliest identifiable feature in the church is the circular font which may be 12th century or slightly later, what is interesting is the heavily restored based is shaped like an upturned version of the bowel and is conceivably its predecessor, the discarding and even burial of fonts is known to have occurred in some medieval churches. The font covers appears to be 17th century in style and was purchased by the churchwardens in 1765.
The church is now looked after by The Churches Conservation Trust. When the nave roof was found to be failing in 2000, the small congregation lacked the financial resources to save the building. A report by the archaeology office emphasised how important this small church was and in 2002 the church was made redundant and the trust carried out repairs to bring the church in good order. The church remains a consecrated building, in which the occasional services are well supported, its nice to think that the church comes alive sometimes throughout the year.
It really is a little gem of a building and if you are in the area, pop in because you will not be disappointed.
Echoes of the Past 
What a lovely place, just the kind of church I would like to poke around. That tower is amazing! 🙂
I must admit, I did think twice about going in, but thought the tower would fall away from the nave, so I would be ok……it is lovely 🙂
The tower has leaned since the initial building began in th 12C. The intention was for a much taller tower but the foundations built onto a mainly peat base were never going to be ideal.
Thank you for the info, thats interesting as I didn’t know about it leaning right from the beginning 🙂
I got married in this church in 1971. I lived in Puxton, and when younger my nan would clean the church and we all helped. Dad cut the grass.
Thank you Jennifer, its nice to hear some history about the church, it is such a amazing building 🙂