Church Of The Blessed Virgin Mary

This parish church dates largely from the late 15th century but was substantially rebuilt in 1888 by the architectural firm Haywood and Son. The surviving 15th-century work uses large blocks of volcanic ashlar with red sandstone, and Beerstone ashlar is employed decoratively on the voussoirs with Beerstone detailing throughout. The 1888 reconstruction is built of snecked red and purple sandstone with Hamstone detail. The roofs are slate.

The west tower and the walls of the north aisle represent the largely intact 15th-century fabric. In 1888 the nave was extended with a new south wall, and a new chancel, vestry and south porch were constructed.

Exterior

The west tower is a good tall structure of two stages with diagonal buttresses featuring weathered offsets, a chamfered plinth, soffit-moulded dripcourses, carved gargoyle water spouts and an embattled parapet. On the north side stands a semi-hexagonal stair turret with tiny trefoil-headed slits and quatrefoil windows. This turret rises a little above the parapet, becoming fully hexagonal at the top with its own embattled parapet, and is surmounted by a 19th-century wrought iron weather vane. A blocked doorway exists at the base of the tower. The belfry windows are square-headed with flat arches and sunken spandrels; all are of two lights except the north window which has one. On the west side is a large and ornate four-centred arch with moulded surround enriched with four-leaf decoration, carved foliate spandrels and a moulded square hood. Directly above sits a three-light window with Perpendicular tracery and hoodmould. On the south side is a small square-headed window with sunken spandrels and cinquefoil head, retaining its external ferramenta. A late 19th-century open wrought iron clock face is also mounted on this side.

The 19th-century work continues on the south side of the nave. All the 19th-century gable ends have shaped kneelers and coping. The porch has a Latin apex cross, while the nave and chancel have fleuree crosses, but the vestry has none. The principal windows are arched with Perpendicular tracery and have hoodmoulds with labels carved as the heads of kings, queens, bishops and worthies. The nave projects very slightly from the tower and has an uneven three-window range of tall three-light windows interrupted by the porch left of centre. The porch has a two-centred outer arch with a moulded hood and labels similar to the windows. Above the porch is a band of Hamstone, and above that in the gable a sunken panel in the shape of a convex-sided triangle containing a sexfoil.

The chancel is slightly lower than the nave and is separated from it by a buttress. The south side has two Perpendicular-style windows separated by a narrow arch-headed priest's door with plain hoodmould. The east end has a three-light Perpendicular-style window. The second gable behind belongs to the vestry and contains a circular window with cusped tracery, a hoodmould and carved labels. Lower and to the right is a square-headed two-light window with sunken spandrels and trefoil heads. An octagonal-section ashlar chimney shaft rises from the rear corner.

The north side of the vestry projects slightly further than the north aisle and contains a doorway with four-centred head and plain chamfered surround. The north aisle returns to 15th-century masonry and has a three-window front of three-light windows with Perpendicular tracery, with another in the west end beyond a diagonal corner buttress.

Interior

The porch has a floor of 19th-century coloured tiles, exposed stone walls and an open barrel-vaulted roof. The south doorway is a two-centred arch with chamfered surround containing a 19th-century plank door with strap hinges enriched with ornate bifurcated scrolls in the style of the 13th century. Its other ferramenta is also complete.

The north aisle has a restored 15th-century wagon roof with moulded braces and purlins and some original carved oak bosses (square with simple foliate designs). The nave and chancel have wholly 19th-century roofs in very similar style to the aisle. All are open and backed with pine boards, and all have 19th-century crenellated wall plates.

The tall 15th-century tower arch has broad double mouldings on the arch dying into plain responds. The tower contains late 15th-century moulded beams to the ringing floor and a four-centred arch doorway to the stair. The 19th-century Hamstone chancel arch has a moulded surround.

A four-bay arcade runs from nave to aisle with moulded piers of unusual section comprising double hollow chamfers between half-engaged corner shafts. The capitals have relatively crudely carved foliate capitals with shields on the corners. In fact, the original 15th-century three-bay Beerstone arcade was extended eastward to four bays in 1888 and built with Hamstone. The east end of the aisle still contains a 15th-century Perpendicular three-light window now separating the aisle from the organ chamber. The wall between aisle and chancel at the east end of the arcade contains a large arch-headed aperture, presumably knocked through in 1888. The north side of the chancel also contains a wide arch to the organ and a small doorway to the right leading to the vestry.

The floor is made up of coloured 19th-century tiles and includes several 17th- and 18th-century graveslabs. Encaustic tiles are used increasingly towards the altar.

Most of the furniture is 19th-century, comprising a plain oak altar table, oak altar rail with timber standards, Gothic stalls with poppy head finials on the ends and open arcade along the fronts, an oak drum pulpit, and a good oak lectern dated 1890 carved as a pelican in her piety on a twisted stem enriched with foliage. There are plain deal benches and wainscoting around the nave and aisle. The tower screen is dated 1923 but across the top is set a section of the front parapet of a good early 17th-century oak gallery; it is panelled and carved with ornate classical arcades to the panels, strapwork to the muntins above, and a frieze of guilloche enriched with acanthus leaves.

The 15th-century Beerstone Perpendicular font has an octagonal bowl with sunken panels containing quatrefoils around four-leaf motifs, the coving below has a large four-leaf motif on each side, and the stem has a blind arcade with trefoil heads.

The 1888 windows contain tiny panes of leaded coloured translucent glass.

Monuments

The only notable mural monuments are those in the north aisle, described from east to west.

The Porter memorial of circa 1815 is white marble on a shaped grey marble ground. The inscription, recording the death of Thomas Porter in 1815 and his wife Sarah in 1823, is flanked by pilasters with inlaid black fretwork and clawed bases over a lower section enriched with carved fronds. At the top a tented canopy is surmounted by a vase with garlands of flowers, and an apron contains an heraldic device. It is signed by R. Blore, Junior, London.

The Bidgood memorial of circa 1813 is white marble on a shaped grey marble ground. The rectangular plaque records the death of Charles Bidgood in 1813. It has a soffit-moulded cornice surmounted by a vase with drapery, and above that an heraldic achievement. This monument is signed by C. Kendall of Exeter.

Another Bidgood memorial comprises two white marble framed plaques with pediment heads sharing the same grey marble ground. The top plaque is more elaborate and records the death of Henry Fisher Bidgood in 1851 and his daughter in 1840. The lower plaque is in memory of his wife Sarah (died 1860).

Another Porter monument of circa 1820 is also white on grey marble. The plain rectangular plaque records the death of William Porter in 1820. It is surmounted by a sarcophagus with a wreath of ivy on the side and a carved head half-hidden with drapery.

A third Porter memorial of circa 1857 has a white marble plaque recording the death of Thomas Porter in 1857, his wife and daughter, set in a Tudor Gothic Beerstone frame.

The Haywood restoration of 1888 is attractive and consistent. The architect appears to have taken pains to integrate the 15th-century north aisle and attractive west tower.