Crewkerne & Ilminster Deanery

St Peter

Ilton

There is evidence that there has been a church on the current site in Ilton since 800AD.  The first recorded vicar was named Johannes in 1221, but there is a gap over around 100 years before a further incumbent appears in the flimsy records.  The church record dates from 1642.

The current building dates from the early 14^th Century.  It was built in the ‘Perpendicular’ style and had a Tower on the south that also served as the main entrance.  The tower had a stone base, topped by wood clad with lead.  The tower housed a clock and four bells.  In 1882 the tower was found to be dilapidated and unsafe – leaning to the north east a yard out of the perpendicular.  The wooden structure was removed, but the parish could not raise the funds to replace the tower, until in 1924 the Rev Poole arranged to have the foundations improved and the modern square tower was built with brick.

The stained glass windows are all of the Victorian period and very colourful.  The last window on the south side of the nave is unique; it is of clear glass, beautifully engraved by Laurence Whistler in memory of Henry Cecil Graham who died in 1957 - It was commissioned by his wife who lived in the Village until her death in 1984.  Her relatives commissioned a further small diamond- shaped window by Laurence Whistler in her memory; this was installed in the repaired south transept window in 1988, and is an engraving of a passion flower

The four original bells in the Church Tower are inscribed and dated as follows:

Treble    Give Thanks to God 1613

  2nd     Give Thanks to God 1639

  3rd      Jacob! Regis Arimi et Anno Primo Regni AD 1603

Tenor    No inscription but dated 1603

The bells fell silent in 1923 and were re-hung and two bells added in 1964

St Peter's, llton is one of only three churches in England, in addition to Westminster Abbey, which retains the very old custom of using 'houseling' cloths at the celebration of the Holy Communion.  The two other churches are Wimborne Minster in Dorset and Hexham Abbey In Northumberland.  The word ‘houseling' is derived from the Saxon ‘housel' meaning an offering or oblation, and hence signifying the Sacrament and the Eucharist.  It is used in this meaning by Spencer and by Chaucer.  The first traceable use of the word 'housel' appears in the canons of King Edgar (960) which gave instructions under which, and when, the "housel" or Sacrement was to be given to the Parishioners, the sick and to the soldiers.  No exact date can be found when the houseling cloths themselves were introduced but, in medieval days, after breaking the loaf of bread, the Priest carried it to the communicants attended by two acolytes holding a cloth.  The purpose of this houseling cloth was to catch the crumbs which fell as the bread was broken. The linen cloth was thus spread before the communicants, sometimes held by them, sometimes laid upon a bench at which they knelt, and sometimes held by the two acolytes with the Priest between them. The present custom is to lay the cloth over the sanctuary rails at Communion Services. 

Daniel Defoe (1661-1731) stayed a Barrington for a short while and produced the following ditty on 18^th century Ilton:

Ancient Church, Wooden Steeple

Drunken Parson, Silly People

Contacts

St Peters is part of the Ilminster Team.

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