The mediaeval architecture of the English West Country, particularly in the great arc of land between Bristol and Exeter, is rightly celebrated for the regional distinction and inventiveness of its major monuments, qualities which endured throughout the Middle Ages. This imaginative originality was also extended to its parish churches and, most remarkably, can be traced back to a period from which little survives in south-western England, the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

The buildings we visit range from the late Anglo-Saxon to the early Tudor, though it would be foolish not to play to the region’s strengths, and the majority belong to the later Middle Ages.

The pre-eminent buildings are, of course, Bristol, Wells and Exeter cathedrals, each of them variously extended, refurbished and embellished between the late thirteenth and mid-fifteenth centuries, each of them retaining much of their mediaeval statuary, furniture and stained glass. Each also belongs to wider precincts, that at Wells exceptionally well preserved, in whose vicar’s close and various gates one might glimpse some of the most influential structures of mediaeval England.

Wells is in many ways the ideal place to stay, for it sits towards the middle of an unusual concentration of parish churches of national importance, a significant theme of the tour. And with the buildings of the calibre of Lullington, Isle Abbots, Compton Martin and Steeple Ashton we will not want for masterpieces of parish church design.

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