Saxon
The early Saxon church on Exmoor was largely monastic, with monks going out from quite distant abbeys to preach in local villages. In some settlements preaching crosses would be set up at points where services were held. These were often at places such as holy wells where there were still connections with pagan traditions. Priests would mark this place by putting up a wooden and, later, a stone cross. Sometimes the priest would ring a hand-bell to let people know he was there to preach and take services. There are fragments of a stone cross exhibited inside Polock church and the shaft of the cross in Luxborough churchyard may date from Saxon times.
In larger settlements monks would eventually settle. If the site of the cross became a popular place of worship, a church may eventually be built, often on the northern side of the cross. The first churches were usually of wood and later of stone. The only Saxon stonework surviving in any Exmoor church is a small window at Culbone and this is of uncertain date. The two light window is carved from a single piece of stone and the upright between the lights is decorated with a head. This is siad to be a boar's head but it is unclear what it represents. The dedications of six Exmoor churches to Celtic saints suggest that there may have been Saxon or British churches on their sites. Presumably, these were wooden churches that were later replaced by stone. There are likely to have been other churches, as many were re-dedicated as some saints became more fashionable than others. There is no documentary evidence for any church on Exmoor from Saxon times. Carhampton church was, however, mentioned in the Domesday book, which means that it existed in Saxon times. As churches were not taxed, they were not usually recorded in the book. Although a sign outside Stoke Pero church states that it was mentioned in the book, this is not true. What was probably meant is that the settlement was called Stoke in the book and 'stoke' is a Saxon word for a settlement with a church. The dedication of the church has been lost in time and, when it was rebuilt in Victorian times, evidence was unearthed of a small, ancient church on the smae site.
Normans
The Norman Gothic period (1066-1200) in Britain was very much in the ‘French style’. The buildings of this time are transitional - many still have the thick piers and rounded window openings of the earlier Romanesque style. Vaulting and decoration are simple; there is little sign of the elaborate stonework to come.
St George’s at Dunster was probably the first Norman church on Exmoor. The Lord of the Manor, William de Mohun, endowed the Abbey at Bath with land, tithes and the advowson of the parish church in return for the monkls building a church, which they did about the year 1100. Cistercian monks then founded Cleeve Abbey about the year 1189 and Augustinian canons founded Barlynch Priory about the same time.
The Norman churches were small but solid. sometimes they just consisted of a square chancel separated from the nave by an arch. Sometimes there would be a squat tower and a round headed doorway for the congregation. Such doorways survive at Dunster and Hawkridge, which also has a Norman font. Norman fonts were often cut from single blocks of stone and 17 have survived in Exmoor churches. The only Norman window to have survived is at Monksilver and there are sections of Norman masonry in the walls of the churches at Exton and Old Cleeve.
Medieval architecture
Medieval church architecture on Exmoor does not generally have a local style. The style was the Gothic style used throughout much of western Europe at the time. The original Gothic style sprang up in the Ile de France, and was known during the Middle Ages as ‘the French Style’. It was not until the 16th century that art critic Giorgio Vasari compared medieval architecture to the barbarism and presumed lack of taste of the Goths, who had ravaged Rome, and the term ‘Gothic’ came into vogue. Vasari also coined the term ‘Renaissance’ that referred to the rebirth of classical styles of architecture in his own era. Taste can, however, go around in circles and there was a revival of the Gothic style in the 19th century. Generally speaking, Gothic architecture emphasised strong vertical lines and included high vaulted ceilings, minimal wall space, pointed window and door openings, and buttressed walls.
It is in the Early English period (1200-1275) that the Gothic style became truly adapted by English craftsmen and architects. This period is also called "Lancet", referring to the pointed lancet windows (narrow, untraceried) that characterise it. Form is still austere and proportion is simple.
The main points of Early English are: quadripartite ribbing in vaults, slender towers topped with spires, lancet windows - both single and grouped - and piers with narrow, clustered shafts. The finest example of Early English architecture is to be found at Salisbury Cathedral.
Decorated Gothic (1275-1375) - also called Geometric, Curvilinear, and Flamboyant - These terms describe primarily the fanciful tracery and ornamentation found in the window heads during this time. Windows were wider than the earlier lancet openings. Exeter Cathedral contains some of the best examples of this style.
The final flourishing of Gothic in Britain was the Perpendicular period (1375-1530+). As its name suggests, the chief characteristic of Perpendicular architecture is the emphasis on strong vertical lines, seen most markedly in window tracery and wall panelling. Towers in particular were elaborately decorated and pinnacled, and windows became massive, traceried spider-webs of stone. Wall space was at a minimum, which had the effect of introducing a wonderful feeling of light and spaciousness into the interior of these buildings. Selworthy church has beautiful Perpendicular architecture, amongst the finest in the West Country, and Luccombe church has particularly ornate Perpendicular windows.
Few churches in Somerset escaped embellishment in the 15th century. The sixty or so Perpendicular towers in Somerset are unrivalled for composition and detail. Teams of masons would travel from parish to parish, exploiting the rivalry between them for the height and beauty of the towers. Exmoor parishes did not have the wealth to compete with others and towers remained plain and squat in comparison, more in the Devon than Somerset style. They lack the detail of carving in the tracery, pinnacles and figures on towers in the true ‘Somerset’ style. The nearest the area comes to this are the one hundred foot tiered towers at Dunster and Combe Martin, which is in Devon. The nearest true ‘Somerset’ style towers are probably at Bishops Lydeard and Chittlehampton, which is also in Devon.
In the late 15th and early 16th centuries towers and porches were added to simple moorland churches that had only a nave where the congregation stood and a chancel for the altar, priest and choir, if any. The larger churches on the Exmoor fringes usually had extra accommodation for an expanding congregation in aisles running along either side of the nave at the same length and height. These are known as ‘hall churches’. The standard plan of chancel, nave (with or without aisles), west tower and south porch is characteristic of the parish churches of Devon and West Somerset. On Exmoor there are few exceptions to this plan: a handful of churches having north porches and Dunster having a cruciform plan. The reason for the latter is that it was a priory church with two naves: one for parishioners and one for monks. Some of the larger churches had side chapels added for the tombs of wealthy patrons. The porches of some also had a room above for a priest, school or gallery, such as at Porlock and Selworthy.
On the Exmoor fringes are exceptionally fine, ornately carved wooden roods screens from this period. The largest examples are at Dunster, Carhampton, Combe Martin, Withycombe and Minehead (St Michael’s), which retains its rood loft. Rood screens, which divided the chancel from the nave, were often removed during the Reformation or later restoration, but survived better in the West Country than elsewhere. The rood loft, which carried a gallery over the screen with the rood, a depiction of Calvary, was a particular target for Puritan reformists and rarely survives in Britain. A new rood has been placed on the screen at Combe Martin.