Church Of St Mary Blessed Virgin

Church of St Mary Blessed Virgin

A priory chapel later developed into a parish church, located on Market Road in Plympton. The building dates largely to the 15th century, with a 14th-century chancel and the eastern ends of the north aisles surviving from that earlier period.

The church is constructed in granite ashlar for the western tower and outer aisles, with ashlar also used for the porches. The remainder is limestone rubble with limestone dressings. Dry slate roofs cover the structure, featuring embattled parapets and coped gable ends.

The building comprises a nave, chancel, north and south aisles with shorter outer aisles, a north porch and two-storey south porch, and a western tower. The exterior displays a plinth with buttressed bays to the aisles, topped by a parapet cornice, carved gargoyles, and buttress pinnacles. The 14th-century windows to the eastern ends of the north aisles and chancel are mostly 15th-century or restored Perpendicular in style, predominantly three lights with tracery and hoodmoulds.

The south porch features stepped cusped niches surrounding a two-light cusped window. The upper niche contains a statue of the Trinity. Below the window is the crest of the Strode family, who settled at Newham near Plympton in 1394. These decorative elements sit above a virtually round-arched moulded doorway with carved spandrels and a square hoodmould. At the eastern end of the south aisle is a pointed-arched doorway with the springing of a relieving arch adjacent to a window.

The north porch has a moulded two-centred arched doorway with moulded hood, carved spandrels, and a moulded parapet cornice above. The door itself is 19th-century panelled and boarded.

The three-stage embattled tower has offset corner buttresses terminating as pinnacles near the top of the upper stage. Strings divide the stages, and the corners are surmounted by octagonal pinnacles with battlements and crockets. The upper stage contains three-light louvred windows and clock faces on the north and south sides. The western side displays a two-light window to the top of the second stage and a three-light window above a moulded pointed-arched doorway with carved spandrels and square hoodmould.

Internally, the aisle arcades feature four-centred arches with standard A type piers (as defined by Pevsner). The outer aisle piers are of granite. A 14th-century piscina is present, and a stone vault with lierne ribs spans the entrance within the south porch.

The church contains a 15th-century octagonal font and a late 19th-century reredos by J D Sedding. Stained glass includes work by Burlison & Grylls to the outer south aisle, and glass by Clayton & Bell at the eastern end of the north aisle and western end of the south aisle.

The monuments within the church are particularly significant. An altar slab from the priory is positioned in the south porch. A medieval tomb lid with a cross lies in the outer north aisle. A chest tomb belongs to Richard Strode, died 1464, and features figures of mourners, an effigy in armour, an ogee-arched top, and horizontal cresting. A simpler effigy in a recess to the south chancel aisle probably commemorates William Courtenay of Loughtor. A large tripartite wall monument with Ionic columns and a family group honours Sir William Strode, died 1637. A cast stone monument to W Seymour, died 1801, was created by Coade & Sealy. A monument featuring two white putti leaning against an obelisk with a figure of a boy commemorates Viscount Boringdon, who died 1817 aged 11, executed by F N Delaistre in 1819. A monument with a profile head of Richard Rosdew, died 1837, was created by Chantrey.