St Mary Arches Church

St Mary Arches Church

St Mary Arches is a medieval parish church on Mary Arches Street in Exeter, built in red sandstone with limestone dressings and slate roofs. The church consists of a nave and chancel in one, north and south aisles, a west tower, and a north-east office. It has no churchyard.

The church's most significant architectural feature is its 12th-century arcading, which is unique among Devon churches and likely gives rise to the building's name. The arcades comprise four bays including what is now the chancel area, with circular piers featuring multi-scalloped capitals linked by arches with double chamfering. The building was substantially remodeled in the 15th century with aisle-widening and new fenestration, and it appears to have been shortened at both east and west ends, possibly in the 15th century or shortly after.

Externally, the most prominent elevation is the south side, visible from the High Street. The south aisle displays two three-light Perpendicular windows with typical panel tracery, partly refaced with imitation stone after 1942 damage, with pinkish artificial facing on the western parts and bare sandstone to the east. The north aisle similarly contains three-light Perpendicular windows. The small west tower sits between and flush with the west ends of the aisles, featuring a west doorway that includes Norman remnants, a three-light Perpendicular window with panel tracery above, and belfry-stage windows with two-light mullioned square-headed lights with uncusped lights. A segmental-section stair turret with small rectangular apertures for lighting is on the north side. The tower has a plain parapet with corner balls. The west gable ends of the aisles have three-light square-headed windows above which are three-light pointed windows with panel tracery. At the east end, three high-set Perpendicular windows of three lights each occupy the nave, aisles, and chancel components, the chancel window being the tallest. The south doorway has a small gabled canopy protecting a plaster royal arms of the period 1603-1707.

Internally, the walls are plastered and whitened. The dominant feature remains the 12th-century arcading. Plastered ceilings, installed to replace those destroyed in the Second World War, cover the building, with dormer windows on either side of the nave. Remnants of the jambs of the arch to the previous medieval tower survive at the west end.

The principal fixtures include a reredos dating from circa 1700 made by John Legg, featuring Corinthian pilasters and carved foliage around oval, rectangular and arched panels, though the Commandments have been painted over. It was repaired during Stephen Dykes-Bower's post-war restoration. An ornate wrought-iron bracket beside the font, made up of former mace and sword rests, supports the font cover. A Georgian royal arms stands near the south door.

The church contains a fine collection of monuments from the 16th and 17th centuries. Thomas Andrew (died 1518), twice mayor of Exeter, is commemorated by a recumbent effigy on a tomb-chest under an ogee-headed canopy with four angels holding shields on the base, located at the east end of the south aisle. Robert Walker (died 1602, three times mayor) has an upright oval monument between Corinthian columns with an open pediment above in the west part of the south aisle. John Davy (died 1611) is memorialized in the centre of the south aisle with a monument featuring strapwork and naked putti. Thomas Walker (died 1628) and his wife (died 1622) are shown as life-size kneeling figures facing one another. Maria (died 1659) and Christopher Lethbridge (died 1670) have an architectural surround with painted grey marbling and other original colours in the north aisle. Five additional wall-monuments of the Exeter type with sober but inventive architectural frames date from 1666, 1673, and three from 1682.

St Mary Arches was a church of considerable importance, with a parish of approximately three acres that was relatively large and prosperous for the medieval period. The Norman arcade demonstrates an imposing church existed at an early date. The building's structural history is complex and unusual: it expanded north and south in the late Middle Ages but was also shortened to the east and west. The north wall was rebuilt in 1814. Following severe bomb damage in 1942, the church underwent much repair work by Stephen Dykes-Bower, completed in 1950, including partial refacing with imitation stone. In the late 20th century, seating was removed and replaced with chairs, and the floor was carpeted. The north-east office is now used by a non-denominational evangelical group.