The Parish Church Of St Mary Magdalene

The Parish Church of St Mary Magdalene is a parish church located on High Street, Stoke Canon. The west tower dates to the late 15th century, while the remainder of the church, comprising the nave, south porch, and chancel, was rebuilt in 1835-6 by Mason. The building is constructed of coursed stone.

The west tower is tall and slender, representing an extreme example of a local architectural characteristic. It has two stages and a tall plinth; the string course of which forms the west doorway hood mould. A north semi-octagonal stair turret occupies half of the side elevation. Corner buttresses are set with three offsets, and a four-light Perpendicular window is visible on the west side. The belfry has two-light openings with trefoil-headed quatrefoil moulded battlements and pinnacle stollings. Mason’s church is typical of the 19th century, featuring a tall battlemented preaching box and a shallow chancel. The nave has three wide bays with three-light Perpendicular windows separated by buttresses. A porch is centrally positioned on the south side. The east window may retain medieval glasswork.

Internally, the tower arch is two orders with responds featuring wave moulding. The nave has five bays, heavy moulded wooden tie-beams and collars with large cusping. The chancel panelling, from the 1820s, is particularly noteworthy, featuring an arcade of pointed, cusped bays divided by buttresses, a battlemented cornice and constructed of South Devon limestone. The east bays contain commandment panels, and a central painting of Christ Crowned with Thorns by King of Bristol (1841) is displayed. Notable fittings include an exceptionally interesting Norman font with a circular bowl supported by four attached (much defaced) shafts carried on caryatids who grip a cable moulding. The faces of the bowl display varied interlacing designs which are strongly pre-Norman in character. Four figures are attached to the shafts between the caryatids; one holding a book, another a staff. A substantial number of medieval bench ends and backs remain, along with others by Edward Ashworth (1875). A semi-octagonal wooden pulpit is in a Jacobean style, with arched panels and fluted muntins. A monument to Elizabeth Paterson, who died in 1650, is set into the south wall and features Corinthian columns and a heraldic device; the entablature appears to be missing. A monument to Samuel Hall, from the 17th century, is located on the north wall, with an architrave, entablature, putti faces and a heraldic crest. Some fragments of painted glass from the 1830s are found within the west window.