Rolle Mausoleum Including The Ruins Of The Old Church, Adjoining To West, The Whole Being Approximately 12 Metres West Of The Church Of St Mary

The Rolle Mausoleum, including the ruins of the adjoining original parish church, stands approximately 12 metres west of the Church of St Mary at Bicton Park.

This building comprises two distinct structures: the ruins of a 15th-century parish church and a mausoleum built in 1850. In that year, the medieval church was deliberately ruined, and a small part of its east end was rebuilt by the architect Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin as a mortuary chapel (Pugin preferred to call it this rather than a mausoleum) to serve as a memorial to John Rolle, commissioned by his widow, Louisa, Lady Rolle.

The surviving church walls are constructed of plastered stone rubble with Beerstone ashlar detailing and a slate roof to the tower. The 15th-century west tower of the medieval church remains at full height. It is relatively low, plain, and unbuttressed, with a low-pitch gable-ended roof probably dating to 1850, including a chimney shaft-like projection on the west gable end. The belfry contains plain lancet windows. On the west side is a 2-centred arch doorway of local sandstone ashlar with a broad chamfered surround. The south side displays a much-defaced Beerstone memorial, probably of the 17th century, with a pediment over a moulded entablature containing two round-headed tablets above a scrolled apron featuring a cherub. The south wall of the aisle has a 3-window front; the central window has lost its mullions and the wall below has been removed to create an archway, with unusual tracery probably installed in 1850, while the flanking windows retain conventional 15th-century Perpendicular tracery. Some architectural fragments lie on the ground along the west side of the churchyard. From the medieval structure's east end, the walls of the nave project north and south; the north wall is left as a stub acting as a buttress, with the chapel lying at the east end of this wall.

The Mausoleum is constructed of stone rubble faced with Beerstone ashlar detail and has a shaped tile roof with fleur-de-lys crested ridge tiles. It is a gable-ended structure with shaped kneelers enriched with four-leaf-style decoration, coping, and ornate fleuree apex crosses. A moulded plinth runs around the building and coved eaves cornices extend along each side. Diagonal corner buttresses and central buttresses on each side feature weathered offsets. Each gable end contains a 3-light window with elegant early Perpendicular-style tracery, external fragments, and hoodmoulds with plain square labels, with a quatrefoil window above each. The north side retains the remains of a trefoil-headed piscina from the old church. The doorway is positioned on the left end of the south side, comprising a 2-centred arch with moulded surround, hoodmould, and circular labels including florets. The plank door retains all its original ferramenta. The 15th-century masonry on the east end bears considerable early graffiti, including sketches of sailing ships.

The interior is described as beautiful and complete. It features a 3-bay wagon roof with intermediate trusses, moulded ribs and purlins, and a series of delicately carved oak bosses along the soffits of the intermediate trusses. From the moulded soffit of each main truss descends a fragile arcade with finials carved as flowers and crests connected by a cable. The wall plates are moulded and include a band of undercut flowing foliage. The vault is boarded. On the north side is a broad boarded coved cornice below the wall plate, divided into panels by moulded ribs with a moulded frieze containing a carved band similar to the wall plate. The roof is painted to Pugin's design, with bosses, wall plates, arcades, friezes, and ribs gilded. All boarded panels are square, each containing a painted octagonal design in the centre with many variations on the same basic pattern, rendered delicate to give the impression of lacework and framed by borders on the natural wood ground. The panels in the coved cornice include a series of painted heraldic achievements. The walls are plastered and the floor is laid with encaustic tiles made specifically for this building, comprising heraldic achievements alternating with geometric patterns in dominant colours of blue and cream, with some white and maroon-brown included.

The interior houses two notably different monuments. Against the south wall stands the Baroque monument of Denys Rolle (died 1638), of superior quality and made of black, grey, and white marbles. It comprises a shaped tomb chest on a moulded base and black plinth, with a massive layered black and white marble lid moulded along the edges and supported on its front corners by free-standing Ionic columns, with three Ionic caps along the front between the chest top and lid. On the lid are expertly carved full-size figures of Denys Rolle and his wife in white marble, framed by a round-headed alcove. She lies recumbent on a pillow with one hand pointing to an open book held in her other hand, while he, dressed in armour, reclines on one arm with his other hand fingering his sword hilt. A carved baby lies on the plinth below the chest. The quality of carving, particularly in details such as Denys' hair and lace ruff, has led to speculation that this is the work of Nicholas Stone; if so, it would be his only work in Devon. An epitaph is painted on the back of the alcove, and the arch is surmounted by a heraldic achievement flanked by smaller arms in cartouches.

Against the north wall is Pugin's own elaborate monument to John Rolle, Baronet (died 1842). It comprises a rectangular Beerstone tomb chest with sides panelled in deep and ornate quatrefoil decoration, including the initials J.R., and a black marble lid inlaid with a foliated brass cross. The wall behind features a large 2-centred arch with moulded surround filled with blind Perpendicular tracery. The panels are filled with Gothic carving including shields with heraldic achievements, supporters, and angels set amongst deeply undercut foliage. A brass plaque set in the floor in front of the tomb records the erection of the mausoleum by Louisa, Lady Rolle, in memory of her husband. The stained window glass was designed by Pugin and executed by Hardman.

Pugin was given a free hand in designing the mausoleum, and the result, though small, is very important as a complete conceived scheme.