Parish Church Of St Matthias

Parish Church of St Matthias, Torquay

This parish church was designed by A Salvin and built in 1858. The south aisle and south transept were added in 1865. The chancel was lengthened and other alterations were carried out between 1882 and 1885 by JL Pearson, who also designed the west bay and porch added in 1894.

The church is constructed of local grey limestone rubble with Bathstone dressings and has slate roofs.

The plan comprises a chancel, a nave with three-bay north and south aisles, north and south transepts (the north transept having a bellcote), a north-west porch, and an open narthex at the west end.

Exterior

The chancel is lower than the nave. The west end is a particularly fine composition, featuring three two-light Geometric Decorated windows divided by buttresses above a three-bay open arcaded narthex with moulded arches on cylindrical columns. The side walls of the narthex rise as massive buttresses with set-offs. The aisles have four-light Decorated traceried windows with king mullions at their west ends. The narthex has a stone vaulted roof.

The north side, which forms the show front, has a buttressed aisle with the roof concealed behind a parapet. Three one-light traceried clerestory windows and two two-light traceried aisle windows punctuate this elevation. The western bay of the aisle features a gabled porch with angle buttresses topped by gabled finials. The porch doorway is moulded and ornamented with bellflowers on octagonal shafts. The gable displays three nodding ogee statue niches with carved figures.

The north transept has a three-light window with intersecting tracery. A bell tower is attached to the west transept; it has a chamfered corner and an octagonal base to the belfry, which features louvred trefoil-headed windows and a stone spire with lucarnes.

A lean-to vestry stands on the north side of the chancel. The chancel has a four-light Decorated traceried east window with a moulded string stepping up below the sill.

A twentieth-century church room is attached to the south-west side.

Interior

The chancel arch is moulded and sits on engaged columns with naturalistic foliage carving. The three-bay aisles have double hollow-chamfered arches springing from alternating cylindrical and octagonal columns, which are furnished with moulded capitals.

The chancel roof is a boarded keeled wagon roof with moulded ribs and blind traceried wall panels, with a ceilure over the sanctuary. The nave has a keeled boarded wagon roof with tie beam trusses on detached shafts. The chancel arch is clad with timber tracery. The lean-to aisle roofs have traceried braces. Low arches open into the transepts.

The chancel contains a fine set of High Victorian fittings. The floor is of marble and tile. An alabaster reredos from 1882, featuring statues by Hems of Exeter, occupies the east wall. The chancel walls are clad with mosaics set in alabaster frames, probably by Powe. Trefoil-headed sedilia and a piscina are present. A wrought-iron sanctuary rail and sturdy choir stalls with traceried panels are fitted throughout, along with an alabaster and wrought-iron chancel rail and a brass eagle lectern.

An elaborate alabaster and local marble pulpit from 1894, ornamented with figures of the evangelists, stands in the nave. A west end screen with glazed traceried panels is fitted above.

The church contains a fine set of nineteenth-century stained-glass windows, including work by Clayton & Bell in the chancel, Drake in the aisle, and a west window probably designed by Morris Drake.