Parish Church Of St John The Baptist

Parish Church of St John the Baptist

This is a parish church of the highest architectural importance, mainly built in the late 15th century but retaining significant 14th-century work. The building was substantially restored in 1833–4 by Wills and again in 1882 by Edward Ashworth. It is constructed of dressed volcanic trap with Beer stone dressing. The church comprises a west tower, nave and chancel with north and south aisles, and a south porch.

The west tower is a particularly fine example of late medieval architecture, built in four stages of ashlar volcanic trap and Beer stone. It features set-back buttresses, each with four offsets, the lower two decorated with creeping animals and the upper two with heads and finials. The west door is set under a square-headed hood mould decorated with fleurons and bishops' heads as terminals, with shields and quatrefoils in the spandrels and a foliated surround. Above this is a four-light conventional late-Perpendicular window. Tall two-light belfry openings contain pierced tracery panels, above which are heraldic panels displaying the arms of Henry VIII and the Chudleigh family. The tower is topped with a parapet featuring quatrefoil panelling, gargoyles, corner pinnacles, and an additional pinnacle to the centre of each side. A single two-light window at second-stage level illuminates the south side. Both the north and south aisles have west demi-octagonal castellated angle turrets, and both sides and the east end feature castellated parapets, those on the sides and east end having been replaced in 1833.

The south side of the church displays five large four-light Perpendicular windows with head tracery matching that of the west window, their mullions featuring castellated capitals (apparently of late 19th-century appearance). Fleurons decorate the concave moulding, and hood moulds with head terminals are present above each window. Buttresses with two set-offs are positioned between the windows. The south porch, added in 1836, is also castellated. The north side is similar to the south but contains six windows and no porch. A notable feature on the north aisle's east window is 14th-century work—a three-light window with elaborate Decorated tracery. Its mullions have castellated capitals and moulded bases, and the hood mould features angel terminals and fleurons. The hood mould breaks through the cornice level, and the disturbed masonry around it suggests the window has been reset.

Internally, the church is laid out as a six-bay through-build with rood screen doorways opening to the north. The arcades feature moulded capitals with varied foliage designs. One capital, dated 1576 and positioned as the third from the west on the south side, is markedly different from the others, displaying masked faces, foliage, and looped ropework. The outer concave moulding of the arches rises from corbels of standing angels, most of which hold shields and face both the nave and aisles, though the four westerly piers facing south bear primitive faces instead. The tower arch has simply chamfered responds with a panelled soffit.

The roofs date to the 1833–4 restoration. The nave and chancel roof is canted with moulded ribs spanning seven bays, while the aisle roofs are flat with square panels containing diamond ribbing. All ribs are of plaster with medievalised bosses. The sedilia, dating to the 14th century, comprise three bays with nodding ogee canopies under foliated finials, each bay divided by tall pinnacles. The rear panelling features five trefoil-headed bays with shields. Beneath the sedilia lies an early 14th-century effigy of a knight with a twisted belt and surcoat, his feet resting on a lion and his head on a helm supported by angels.

The church contains several monuments of considerable importance. In the north chancel aisle stands the monument to Sir John Acland (dated 1613 and 1614), who is depicted lying on his side propped on one elbow on a tomb half-chest, the panel below and behind him heavily decorated with cartouches, putti, and fruit. A projecting entablature rests on paired Corinthian columns beneath which his two wives kneel, topped by elaborate cresting, an obelisk, and an achievement. Pevsner considered this one of the most sumptuous monuments of its date in Devon. In the south chancel aisle is the monument to Edward Drew (died 1622), Recorder of Exeter and London and sergeant-at-law, which was designed specifically for this corner location. He and his wife lie under a canopy moulded with modillions supported by Corinthian columns on a chest with a pulvinated frieze above strapwork panels. Strapwork and shields decorate the south wall behind, with sons and daughters in half-relief kneeling at the foot. On the chancel south wall is the monument to Henry Burroughs (died 1605), founder of Burrough's Almshouses in Broadclyst, shown kneeling with his wife to either side of a desk beneath an entablature, with an additional rough inscription beneath. A modest cartouche in the north aisle's north wall commemorates Thomas Chappell (died 1657).

The furnishings and fittings include a stone reredos of five bays with polished limestone, created by Ashworth in 1882, and a large octagonal font with cusped and finalled nodding ogees to each panel, made by Simon Rowe in 1843. A First World War Memorial window by Clayton and Bell (1919) in the south aisle is accompanied by an associated stone memorial below. The north aisle's east window, an Ellen Acland memorial, contains good Expressionist glass by Leonard Walker dating to circa 1926.