Parish Church Of The Nativity Of The Blessed Virgin Mary

Parish Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Lympstone

This parish church was being rebuilt in 1329, though its dedication was postponed until 1409 when Bishop Stafford consecrated it, describing it as "de novo constructam" (newly built). Following normal practice, the tower would have been the final element of the reconstruction. It shares striking similarities with the nearby tower at Woodbury, which can be confidently dated to 1407–9.

The chancel was lengthened circa 1830 by Burgess. The church was largely rebuilt between 1864 and 1867 by Edward Ashworth, with exceptions made for the tower, the north arcade (which was re-cast), and the chancel arch. An organ chamber and vestry were added by R.M. Fulford in 1889.

The church is constructed of coursed sandstone rubble with limestone banding to the south, under slate roofs. It comprises a west tower, nave, north and south aisles, south porch, chancel, south chancel chapel, north-east vestry and organ chamber.

The west tower rises in three stages with a polygonal stair turret to the south-west, all battlemented. The turret openings alternate between lancets and quatrefoils, and there are gargoyles to the parapet stringcourse. Set-back buttresses with three set-offs rise to the parapet. The belfry has two-light painted openings to all sides, and two pairs of ringing-chamber windows are set one above the other on the south face, with a 19th-century clock positioned between them. The west window has four lights in Perpendicular style (19th century), as does the west doorway. A weathervane dates from the 18th century.

The south side features a five-bay south aisle. The porch has diagonal buttresses and creeping animals adorning the set-offs, with a moulded doorway arch with terminals, all 19th-century work. The windows here are also 19th-century, three-light conventional Perpendicular designs which do not replicate the unusual tracery visible in Spreat's engraving of the 1830s. The south chancel chapel has three tall lancet windows. Three-light and four-light Perpendicular windows light the east and main east window of the aisle, with a two-light window to the south chancel.

The north side contains a five-bay north aisle. The west window by Ashworth features Atherington-type tracery set above a door with an ogee arch, under a square-headed label with quatrefoils in the spandrels; the remaining windows are conventional 19th-century Perpendicular. The organ chamber has a parapet and two-light ogee-headed windows with transoms. The gable-ended vestry, aligned north-south, has a square-headed two-light window and door to the west.

Interior arcades to north and south have wavy-moulded sections with foliage capitals. The north arcade, though supposed to be medieval, was entirely re-cut in the 1860s, whilst the south arcade is entirely Ashworth's work. The tower arch is chamfered with a panelled soffit. The chancel arch has a wavy-moulded section with foliage capitals and was largely restored. A wide, depressed double-chamfered arch connects the chancel with the south chapel, with a bressumer above. The nave has an arch-braced roof, while the chancel and aisles have ceiled panelled roofs.

A Norman font with an unusual cable-imbricated moulding (much damaged and no longer in use) survives. Monuments include an unsigned mural monument to Nicholas Lee, mayor of Exeter (died 1759), now in the tower's north wall, featuring a memorial inscription with cornice and pediment, an apron with putti, and a portrait bust above. A white marble memorial wall slab in the north aisle's north wall commemorates Francis Drake (died 1722).

The church contains a good and varied collection of 19th-century stained glass by several makers, ranging from the 1840s to the early 20th century. Notable works include glass by Clayton & Bell of 1867 in the south chancel chapel east window; the south aisle south-east window to Mary Peters; the south aisle south window (Lennox memorial); the south aisle south Birch memorial by Jennings (1900); south aisle west (baptistry) and north aisle west windows to Frances Peters; the north aisle north Marshall memorial (1884); and the north aisle west Macdonald memorial (Ascension).