Church of All Saints, Castle Cary

All Saints Church stands in the Somerset town of Castle Cary. Built in 1470, it is a Perpendicular Gothic church with a tall stone steeple. The tower rises in three stages and holds six bells cast in 1760 by Thomas Bilbie. Local Doulting stone forms the walls beneath a slate roof with battlemented parapets. The nave was lengthened in the 19th century to add more open seating. The church’s history reaches back to Saxon times, though no wooden fabric remains. During the English Civil War the building suffered damage and its organ was lost. The writer James Woodforde, born in nearby Ansford, recorded parish life in his diary and a display about him can be seen in the Castle Cary and District Museum. In the 1850s architect Benjamin Ferrey restored the church, raising the tower and creating extra unreserved seats. Inside, visitors find a 15th-century font and wooden pulpit. Outside, the churchyard contains a 16th-century monument to the Cosenes family, now on the Heritage at Risk Register. The tower’s bells still ring over the town, linking past and present.