Monksilver parish church is built of red sandstone and has some interesting features including gargoyles and a yew .tree planted in 1770.
As the parish church, All Saints Church, was was built to serve people living in the parish of Monksilver. That remains its primary function but now, as one of seven churches in the Quantock Towers Benefice, it also serves the wider community
In Monksilver; a village that has been continually occupied by humans for at least a thousand years, the church is both the oldest and, arguably, the most important building.
There is no reason to believe that it has not stood here for a very long time; the list of Rectors in the south aisle runs only from 1324 but it is probable that Priests were sent to minister here well before that. No building can survive for centuries without maintenance so there is a long history of modification, alteration and restoration.
This is a building that has been in continual use for the same purpose for eight hundred or more years; families have worshiped their God, children have been brought here for baptism, couples have been wed and the dead have been buried. Records have been kept of all these events down the centuries and are the prime resource for local historians. Only the the current books are kept here, but earlier ones may be examined, by appointment, in the Somerset Records Office. Local people have wanted their loved ones to be remembered after their death and the churchyard is rich with memorials of one kind or another.
The primary purpose of the building has always been as a venue for services in praise of God. Details of language, phraseology, ritual and ceremony have evolved over the years but the intentions have remained much the same.
All Saints Church Monksilver
The church we see today comprises chancel and nave, with a south chapel and
south aisle, and a west tower, essentially the same structure as in 1836. The earliest written record of its presence was in 1291 but there was a church on this site long before that. Unlike the adjacent parish of Stogumber, no church was recorded here in the Domesday Survey but, as Neville Swinburn, a former incumbent, speculated in the first edition of his guide, there may have been a simple building or perhaps just a cross and meeting place. However, we may be certain that a church was well-established by 1113 - or how could Robert de Chandos have established his Goldcliff Priory?
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