Church Of All Saints

This parish church has 13th-century origins but was comprehensively rebuilt in the 15th century, probably between 1420 and 1455, as evidenced by the arms of Bishop Lacy surviving in glass in the north aisle. It was restored in 1884 with a new vestry by R.M. Fulford. The church is constructed of roughly coursed dressed blocks of local conglomerate sandstone with quoins variously of conglomerate sandstone, red sandstone and Beer stone. Original Beer stone architectural details survive, whilst the 19th-century restoration used Bath stone. The roof is slate (formerly shingles, and the north aisle was thatched until the late 18th century). The vestry is built of Torquay limestone with Bath stone detail.

Structure and Development

The west tower appears to be the oldest part, as the aisles butt against it, though it too looks 15th-century. The nave with north and south aisles and porch date from Bishop Lacy's rebuild. The chancel has a lower roof and is set at a slightly different axis to the nave. Parts may derive from the 13th-century church; if so, they were also renovated in the 15th century. In 1884 the chancel was lengthened and a new vestry built on the north side. A rood turret stands in the angle of the north aisle and chancel, reopened in 1891.

The Tower

The west tower is tall, of three stages, with a chamfered plinth and diagonal buttresses to the west end and set-back buttresses to the east. It has weathered offsets and a stop below the belfry, with an embattled parapet. A semi-octagonal stair turret on the north side rises a little higher than the tower with its own embattled parapet, tiny slit windows, and is surmounted by a brass weathercock. If this is the one mentioned in the 1785 churchwardens' accounts, it has been restored in the 20th century. The belfry has square-headed two-light windows with cinquefoil heads and hoodmoulds. Slit windows light the ringing loft on the north and south sides. On the west side is a doorway with a two-centred arch and moulded surround with roll stops, containing a 19th-century plank door with ornate strap hinges. Directly above is a rebuilt three-light window with Perpendicular tracery. The tower dripcourse is carried round the bottom of the window and there is a hoodmould over.

South Aisle and Porch

The south aisle has a soffit-moulded eaves cornice and an embattled parapet with moulded coping, both carried round the south porch. All the windows here have new mullions and Perpendicular tracery but the hoodmoulds and labels carved as heads are original. They are all three-light except that at the east end which has four lights. Most of the labels are very weathered but those at the west end are well-preserved; one represents a monk with a very pained expression. The porch has a large restored Beer stone outer arch—a two-centred arch with richly-moulded surround—and in the side walls are Beer stone slit windows. To the left there is a window and to the right are two more separated by a buttress, with buttresses at each end.

Rood Turret and Chancel

The rood turret is three-sided with large Beer stone and red sandstone quoins and contains a slit window made from a single piece of limestone. The chancel has 19th-century fenestration. On the south side are two windows: the left one is a two-light window with Perpendicular tracery and hoodmould; the right one is square-headed, two lights with cinquefoil heads and hoodmould (the head actually looks old but if so has been reused). Between them is a narrow priest's door with a two-centred arch with hollow-chamfered surround and hoodmould. Set-back buttresses on the east end are plastered with Bath stone ashlar offsets. The east end contains a large three-light window with Decorated tracery and a hoodmould with ball labels carved as fruiting vine. On the north side there is a lancet with Decorated tracery in the short distance between the vestry and north aisle. The gable ends of the chancel, nave and north aisle have ashlar coping and apex crosses.

Vestry and North Aisle

The eastern end of the vestry is flat-roofed with a moulded cornice and parapet; the taller western end has a pitched roof at right angles to the chancel with a half-hipped roof. On the north side the doorway has a pointed segmental arch; to the right is a trefoil-headed lancet, then a similar twin lancet, and on the north side a triple lancet. The end of the taller part includes a rectangular window with trefoil-headed tracery either side of a projecting stack with a chimney shaft with weathered offsets. All the windows of the north aisle are 19th-century replacements with Decorated tracery and hoodmoulds.

Interior

Porch

The porch has a flagged floor and stone benches along either side. Its high lean-to roof features a four-panel intersecting beam ceiling with moulded beams and a central carved oak boss featuring a rose. The south doorway is a Tudor arch with a moulded surround enriched with four-leaf decoration and with large roll stops. It contains a restored but essentially ancient studded oak plank door. Above the door is a large painted board recording charity bequests from the 1830s.

Roofs and Arcades

The nave has a fine seven-bay ceiled wagon roof with moulded ribs and purlins and good carved oak bosses. The crenellated wall plate is carried round shield-shaped corbels below each truss, carved with heraldic badges. The bosses and badges were regilded and repainted to a high standard in 1974 by Peter Stoff of Vienna. The four-bay ceiled wagon roof over the chancel with moulded ribs and purlins must be 19th-century. Both aisles have plain ceiled vaults, although a moulded purlin shows along the apex of the north aisle. The tower arch is tall with a chamfered double arch ring dying into the plain responds. The chancel has a large Beer stone arch. The responds are moulded exactly the same as the arcades with caps to the shafts only, carved with fleur-de-lys and flowers. Each side of the nave has a four-bay Beer stone arcade. The piers are moulded (Pevsner's Type B) with caps to the shafts, also carved with a variety of floral and foliate motifs. The central pier of the northern arcade has an image bracket halfway up on the nave side. Its corbel is carved with a green man motif below a cornice of four-leaf decoration.

Rood Stairs and Chancel Details

The rood stairs were opened up in 1891 with plain square-headed doorways top and bottom and contain a squint across between the south aisle and chancel. The north side of the chancel contains a large 19th-century blind arcade with double-chamfered arch ring; it once housed the organ console. Alongside to the right is the vestry doorway with a flat trefoil-arched head. Halfway along the south side is the 15th-century trefoil-headed piscina marking the position of the altar before the chancel was lengthened.

Walls and Floor

The walls are whitewashed but probably what were 16th-century painted frescoes were discovered on the aisle walls in the 19th century. The traces of ancient colour depicted an arcade of columns in crude perspective with a cherub and inscription (described by T.N. Brushford). The floor is flagged and contains some old graveslabs. The oldest is the remarkable late 16th-century graveslab set in a prime position in the nave in memory of Joan Raleigh, widow of Otto Gilbert and first wife of Walter, father of Sir Walter Raleigh. It is inscribed with a fleuree cross on a pedestal framed by an inscription done in mirror writing. It reads: 'ORATE PRO AIA JOHANNE RALEYH OXTS WALTRI RAILE ARMIG QUE OBIIT X DIE MENSI JUNII ANO D...' (the year has worn away).

Furniture and Fittings

Chancel Furnishings

In the chancel the sanctuary is lined on the sides with 18th-century fielded-panel wainscotting but the rest of the chancel furniture was replaced in Gothic style in the 1930s. The oak chancel screen is 15th-century although much repaired. It is relatively plain without fan-coving. It is five bays, two each side of a doorway. The wainscotting with blind arcading is 19th-century replacement work but the windows appear mostly original: square-headed with slender Perpendicular tracery (Pevsner's A-type). The crenellated wall plate is probably 19th-century.

Pulpit and Lectern

The ornate late 19th-century oak pulpit was designed by Fellowes Prynne, carved by Harry Hems of Exeter, and erected in memory of R.H. Lipscomb, steward of the Rolle Estate, who died in 1892. It is an octagonal drum pulpit. On each corner are small saintly figures, one on top of the other with nodding ogee canopies. Each side has a Biblical scene delicately carved in high relief with canopies and undercut tracery, and under the top a cornice of carved foliage. The stem has blind cusped panels on each side. The Gothic-style lectern may be as late as 20th-century.

The Benches

The glory of the church is its complete set of 16th-century oak benches of high-quality workmanship. All are slightly different, giving rise to the impression that they were acquired over a period rather than being a single scheme. The frontals and backs of each set have blind ogee-headed arcades. Most of the bench ends have a frame of wreathed foliage with small urn stops around a carved panel. All deserve attention but space does not permit individual description. Examples include: the Raleigh pew dated 1537 and featuring a shield (the arms are defaced) with greyhound supporters and above a helmet in profile with antler crests; a very early representation of a North American native; a wool merchant's pew featuring shears, comb, bowl of wool balls and Bishop Blaize; a 16th-century ship riding the sea with a castle, possibly Plymouth Barbican, in the corner; and others bearing arms, symbols of trade, individual profiles including some obvious caricatures. It is a unique series, Gothic in style but none with tracery and wholly secular without a single sacred emblem. The 19th-century reseating created more space which has been made up with 20th-century benches, their ends carved to complement the originals. The benches contain a fine set of 250 embroidered kneelers made between 1974 and 1976.

Font

The font is probably early 15th-century, contemporary with the Bishop Lacy rebuild. Built of Beer stone, it has an octagonal bowl, each face with a sunken quatrefoil panel with a floriated centre. There is a band of carved foliage around the base and the stem has a blind cinquefoil-headed arcade over a moulded base. It stands on a 20th-century two-step plinth.

Tower Screen and Organ

There is a 20th-century timber screen across the tower made as a copy of the chancel screen and above that is the organ, which was moved from the chancel and rebuilt here in 1967. The tower itself was inaccessible at the time of survey.

Memorials and Monuments

There are no monuments in the chancel but north of the altar hangs a large painting of the Virgin and Child in Pre-Raphaelite style signed E. Aveling Green, 1900. A painted board with the royal arms also hangs on the north wall of the chancel. According to the churchwardens' accounts it was painted (or repainted) in 1724.

Over the north arcade are white marble monuments on grey-black grounds: one in memory of Frances Yeates (died 1816) with pedimented head over a cornice, the other in memory of Anna Millar (died 1817) which has a rosette in each concave corner.

Most of the monuments are found in the south aisle. They are all 19th-century and mostly white marble on grey-black ground. The best are those similar two in memory of Samuel Waley (died 1819) and John Hine (died 1859). Also a good Gothic-style white marble memorial to George Compton Read (died 1886), his wife Maria (died 1837) and their children Chandos and Catherine: the surround stands well proud of the plaque and features an ornate cusped arch enriched with crockets and a large poppyhead finial and carried on half-engaged columns with carved foliate caps. Also here and spreading to the rear of the nave are a number of brass plaques to members of the Torriano Family—Genoese but chose to live in East Budleigh and for several generations fought in the English army.

The north aisle has a notable white marble plaque on grey-black grounds; the best is the memorial to Henry Flanke (died 1810) which includes a framing lamp and is signed Kingwill of Sidmouth.

Stained Glass

Some of the 19th-century stained glass was designed by Fulford as part of the 1884 renovation and was made by Drake; and there is some early 20th-century stained glass in Art Nouveau style in the chancel.

Summary

A good if unremarkable 15th-century Perpendicular church boldly situated at the top of East Budleigh village High Street. It appears to be basically a one-period church as renovated in 1884 with a longer chancel. The nave roof has good 15th-century carved bosses. The church however is most remarkable for its complete set of early 16th-century oak benches with their wonderful secular early 16th-century bench ends, which are so evocative of the families and occupations of East Budleigh at the time.