Parish Church Of St Mary

Parish Church of St Mary

This parish church at Collaton St Mary in Paignton was built as a memorial to Mary, daughter of the Reverend John Roughton Hogg of Blagdon, who died in 1864 aged 17. The foundation stone was laid on 21 September 1864 and the church was consecrated on 24 March 1866. It was designed by JW Rowell of Newton Abbot, with the contractor Harvey of Torquay and carved work by Mr Jackman of Teignmouth. The building exemplifies the Early Decorated Gothic Revival style.

The church is constructed of local red snecked breccia with local grey limestone plinth and Bathstone dressings, with a natural slate roof laid in bands of grey and purple with crested ridge tiles and cast-iron rainwater goods. The plan comprises a 4-bay nave, 2-bay chancel, a south-west tower with porch adjoining its east wall, and a vestry and organ chamber to the north side of the chancel.

The exterior is very unaltered. The nave and chancel have buttresses with coped set-offs, and window arches feature white and cream stone banded voussoirs and hoodmoulds with carved label stops. The south side presents a show front rising high above the road. The chancel is lower than the nave, which is crowned with a stone cross on its east gable. The chancel has angle buttresses and a moulded string on the east wall rising to the sill of a 3-light traceried east window, with a trefoil window in the gable. The south side of the chancel has 2 trefoil-headed one-light windows. The lean-to vestry-cum-organ chamber on the north side has an east window of 2 shouldered lights set in a chamfered, arched blind recess, whilst the north side features a shouldered priest's door flanked by shouldered windows. Nave gutters are carried on moulded timber brackets. The nave windows are 2-light with plate tracery and pointed quatrefoils in the head. The west end of the nave, flush with the west wall of the tower, has a tall central buttress flanked by 2-light windows, with a moulded string and angle buttress at the north-west corner. A traceried roundel window with banded stone frame sits in the gable.

The 3-stage tower contains an internal north-east stair and features a parapet pierced with quatrefoils. Moulded strings are interrupted by angle buttresses with coped gables, which change to clasping buttresses at the belfry stage and terminate in tall pyramidal pinnacles with crocketed finials. The west face has a small shouldered doorway below a one-light window, with a Bathstone band above incorporating 2 blind quatrefoils. The belfry stage is recessed between buttresses with a corbelled cornice; 2 belfry lancets have louvres with scalloped lead drips. The south face is similar but the stone band incorporates an 1866 clock-face under a gabled, cusped hood carried on carved corbels. A deep lean-to porch adjoins the east side of the tower, with a moulded outer doorway featuring detached shafts with bell capitals. A row of 4 small lancet windows on the east side of the porch, each with stone shafts and a continuous hoodmould, provides light. The porch interior has a west wall recess with a long bench with wooden seat, and a hollow-chamfered inner doorway with text on tin above.

The interior is remarkably well-preserved, retaining an outstanding set of 1860s fittings and decoration. Plastered walls are punctuated by a double-chamfered red and white stone banded chancel arch carried on short polished limestone shafts with stiff-leaf capitals and naturalistic carved corbels. The 4-bay nave roof has intermediate trusses with principals and purlins carried on moulded stone corbels. Arch-braced trusses feature cranked collars below scissor braces, with the arch braces treated like jointed crucks. The 2-bay chancel roof has 2 intermediate trusses, with the main truss displaying cusped braces below a collar with short curved braces above. Trusses are carried on flower-carved corbels with purlins on moulded corbels. The nave includes a small door on the south side into the tower and above it a blind triple arcade with painted inscription.

A grand marble font on freestone steps on the south side of the nave was given by Miss Durant of Sharpham and carved by Earp to the designs of Bentley. The square bowl sits on a polished marble column with corner shafts. The bowl, with chamfered corners, is decorated with figures of seated saints and mosaics on the sides that include symbols of the evangelists. The steps incorporate encaustic tiles with inscription and the date 1865. An elaborate openwork timber font cover with buttresses and pyramidal pinnacle stands above, with an original lifting mechanism surviving in probably original polychromatic painting.

A simple Portland stone pulpit consists of an obtuse angled stone screen with a cornice, the centre broken forward and taller, flanked by marble shafts. Simple open benches with Y-shaped ends furnish the nave. Two probably 1860s corona lucis in the nave are complete with probably original polychromatic painting and texts.

The chancel includes a double-chamfered arch to the organ chamber, a trefoil-headed priest's door on the north side, and a shouldered aumbry with polished marble shafts. An elaborate, large stone reredos, designed by Bentley and carved by Earp with sculpture by Phyffers, commemorates the Reverend Hogg. The reredos features a brattished cornice and central sculptured section flanked by tall, slender buttresses with elaborate surface carving depicting the Last Supper. Two flanking bays across the east wall and one each to the north and south returns have trefoil-headed arcading over marble herringbone blocks, with carved angels on marble shafts dividing the bays on the east wall. A sanctuary rail features painted cast-iron standards and pretty wrought- and cast-iron curly leaf spandrels. Choir stalls of the 1860s display poppy-head finials and book rests with painted cast and wrought-iron standards. Painted text on tin appears on the south wall of the chancel. Stained glass in the east and 2 south chancel windows was designed by Bentley and executed by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake.

The Reverend Hogg owned the Blagdon estate in Paignton and promoted this church as part of a coherent Victorian group including a school, lych gate and rectory, all dating to the 1860s. Although modest in scale, the church is remarkably complete with very few post-1860s additions and alterations. The high quality font and reredos are outstanding; the ironwork, with extensive survival of original colour, represents a rare and precious survival of Victorian craftsmanship.