MDE1243 - St Brendan's Church, Cheriton (Monument)

(SS 73814676) St Brendan's Church (Site of) (NR) (No information in ONB). [1] The field which contains the Ordnance Survey siting for the church has been regularly ploughed but nothing has been found [2]. The modern St Brendan's Church (MDE11920) was rebuilt in 1738 and there is a local tradition that the building stone was gained from this church [3]. [4] At SS 73795 46762 in a small pasture field 50 metres north of Higher Cheriton farm is a turf-covered platform about 10 metres north to south by 8 metres. It is 0.5 metres high at its southern end and fades away to ground level at the northern end where it has been ploughed away. This platform occupies the position of the siting symbol for St Brendan's Church shown on the 1888 map [5] and, although nothing else apart from the platform was identified during investigation, this presumably marks the site of the church. [6,10] The church lies in a roughly rectangular field of rough pasture about 1.219 metres to 1.524 metres above the level of the adjacent fields and track. In the centre a raised area marks the site of the church itself. Part of the avenue of trees leading to the church survives in the field to the south. [8] The Scheduled Monument Condition Assessment of 2009 gave the site a survival score of 4. [11] The Brendon Tithe Map labels this field as Cheriton Church yard. It was Glebe land at this time, under the care of the Reverend Thomas Roe, who lived at the Parsonage to the northeast (now Brendon Manor Farm, MEM23154). [12] The site was surveyed in June 2015 as part of the 2015 Exmoor Scheduled Monument Condition Assessment. It was given a survival score of 0. [13] This record was enhanced as part of the National Record of the Historic Environment to Exmoor National Park Historic Environment Record data transfer project. [14]