Church of St Michael, Othery

The Church of St Michael stands in the Somerset Levels village of Othery, a Grade I listed building whose earliest parts date from the 12th century. Its tower, a typical Somerset design, was rebuilt in the 19th century after earlier work in the 15th and 16th centuries. The church contains five bells, the oldest cast in the 1650s by Robert Austen, while the newest dates to 1815. Medieval roundels of glass from Glastonbury Abbey show three doctors of the church, and Hardman, Bell and Holland of Warwick added stained glass in the 1850s. The church’s history is marked by the Chard brothers memorial, including Colonel John Chard V.C., who led the defence at Rorke’s Drift. Parish registers begin in 1560, though the oldest surviving copy is a late 17th-century alphabetical version with gaps. Beneath the pulpit, restorers found the Othery Cope, a rare 16th-century ecclesiastical robe now kept at Glastonbury Abbey Museum. Visitors find a perpendicular-style building with a Somerset tower, its pinnacles and niches added in the 1850s. The chancel, vestry and north transept contain stained glass from the 1850s, while the medieval pulpit hides its own story. The church lies on a ley line proposed by John Michell, linked to other St Michael churches at Burrow Mump and Glastonbury Tor.