The Parish Church Of St Mary Magdalene

STOKE CANON HIGH STREET SX 99 NW 3/41 The Parish Church of St Mary 30.6.61 Magdalene GV I Parish church. Late C15 west tower, the remainder of 1835-6 by Mason, comprising nave, south porch and chancel. Coursed stone. West tower, tall with very slender proportions, a rather extreme form of a local characteristic. 2 stages, tall plinth the string course of which forms the west doorway hood mould. North semi- octagonal stair turret takes up half the side elevation. Corner buttresses with 3 off-sets; 4-light Perpendicular west window with traces. 2-light belfry openings, trefoil-headed with quatrefoil moulded battlements with pinnacle stollings. Mason's church is typical of its date, a tall battlemented preaching box with a shallow chancel. 3 wide bays to nave with 3-light Perpendicular style windows separated by buttresses twice weathers. Porch set dead centre of south side. East window might retain medieval work. Internally: tower arch, 2 orders, responds with wave moulding. Nave, 5 bays, heavy moulded wooden tie-beams and collars with large cusping. The best part of the 1820s work is the chancel panelling; arcade of pointed, cusped bays divided by buttresses, with battlemented cornice, all in South Devon limestone. The east bays contain commandment panels, and a central painting of Christ Crowned with Thorns by King of Bristol (1841). Fittings: exceptionally interesting Norman font. Circular bowl with 4 attached (much defaced) shafts supported by caryatids (or atlantes) who grip a cable moulding that divides bowl and shaft. Exposed faces of bowl with varied interlacing designs that are strongly pre-Norman in feel. Attached to shaft (between the caryatids) stand 4 figures, 1 (to north) holding a book, another (to west) a staff. A substantial number of medieval bench ends and bench backs, the rest by Edward Ashworth (1875). Semi- octagonal pulpit, wooden, Jacobean with arched panels and fluted muntins. South wall: monument to Elizabeth Paterson, died 1650. Corinthian colums to either side of epitaph, with heraldic device above. It appears to have lost its entablature. North wall: monument to Samuel Hall, not dated, C17, architrave and entablature, with putti faces and heraldic crest. Some 1830 fragments of painted glass in west window. Belfry not inspected. Sources: Pevsner, SO, 271; Devon C19 Churches Project; re font in TDA, 45 (1913)

Listing NGR: SX9396098017