Church Of St Maurice

The Church of St Maurice is a parish church located on Church Road in Plympton St Maurice. It primarily dates from the 15th century, with the tower rebuilt in 1446. The church underwent restoration in 1878 by architect E.H. Sedding, and the nave roof was replaced in 1905, modeled after the original roof by Hine and Odgers. The structure features rubble walls with granite dressings and dry slate roofs.

The church's plan includes a nave, chancel, north and south aisles, a west tower, and a two-storey south porch, along with a 20th-century vestry in the southwest corner. The exterior showcases buttressed bays with mostly 15th-century three-light windows that have Perpendicular tracery and hoodmoulds. The porch is adorned with angled buttresses and an embattled parapet with a moulded cornice. Its south wall features a two-light window with trefoil-headed lights above three stepped cusped niches, alongside a moulded four-centred arched doorway with a square hoodmould. The north doorway also has a moulded four-centred arch with carved spandrels and a square hoodmould, topped by a pinnacled niche containing a statue. The embattled tower consists of two tall stages separated by a string course, with slender corner pinnacles, an octagonal stair turret, and two-light louvred windows in the upper stage. The north and south sides of the tower display clock faces, while the west wall features a three-light traceried window above a moulded four-centred arched doorway.

Inside, the church boasts a 1905 waggon roof and four-bay arcades supported by standard A (Pevsner) piers and depressed moulded arches. Steps and the base of a 15th-century pulpit are incorporated into the second pier from the east of the south arcade. The interior is also decorated with 19th-century wall paintings depicting St Thomas a Becket and St Maurice.

Notable fittings include a fine 17th-century octagonal panelled pulpit, carved oak bench ends designed in the style of medieval bench ends dated 1879, a small wooden font on a tall pedestal, and intricately carved oak screens. Among the monuments is a tribute to Joshua Reynolds by James Hine, featuring a portrait medallion by F. Derwent Wood, erected in 1904.