All Saints Church

All Saints’ Church stands in the quiet village of Woolley, Somerset, on the gentle slopes of the Mendip Hills. Built in 1761 by John Wood the Younger, it replaced an older church on the same spot. The Grade I listed building has a simple nave and a rounded apsidal sanctuary topped by a small bell tower with an octagonal cupola. Inside, the box pews were removed in 1903 and replaced with pews brought from a church in Bath. A plaque inside records thanks for the safe return of all thirteen men from Woolley who served in the First World War and fifteen in the Second. The church belongs to the Doubly Thankful villages, those whose entire service personnel returned from both world wars. From the 1970s to the 1990s local residents and the Friends of Woolley Church funded a thorough restoration. It now forms part of the benefice of Bath St Saviour with Swainswick and Woolley, within the deanery of Bath. Visitors find a plain but elegant interior with high box pews from Bath, a small bell tower above the sanctuary, and the war memorial plaque on the wall. The churchyard is surrounded by rolling fields and stone walls typical of the Somerset countryside. A short walk leads to the village green and the old farm buildings that complete the peaceful scene.