Church Of St Stephen

Church of St Stephen, High Street, Exeter

This church of Norman origin was substantially rebuilt in the 1660s following a fire, with work completed in 1664, though much medieval material was reused including medieval tracery. The interior was remodelled in 1826 and stripped out in 1972.

The church is built of local red sandstone, with the west wall partly rendered, and has a slate roof. It comprises a nave and chancel in one, a west tower, and a northeast chapel positioned above a public thoroughfare and now used as a meeting room.

The main facades face north onto Exeter's High Street and south onto a square. Both elevations have three-light Perpendicular windows with panel tracery under semicircular heads; those on the south appear to be 19th-century renewals, while those on the north may be late medieval originals. Both north and south elevations carry embattled parapets. A northwest doorway gives access into the north aisle.

The distinctive slender west tower is unbuttressed and features a large embattled stair turret on the northeast corner which rises slightly above the tower's battlement. The belfry stage has plain slit windows from the late 17th-century rebuilding. The most unusual exterior feature is the small embattled northeast medieval chapel, built on a low segmental arch spanning the public thoroughfare below. Both north and south faces of the chapel have two-light cusped windows, though these are 19th-century work. To the south of the chapel, in the east wall of the main building, is a blocked round-headed arch of unknown purpose and date. The roof covering the body of the church is single and low-pitched.

Internally, the walls are plastered and whitened. The distinctive character comes from the 1826 remodelling, which provided north and south arcades of four bays with tall slender wooden quatrefoil piers with moulded capitals and bases, carrying simple four-centred arches. Although covered by a single external roof, the interior is tripartite with a nave and aisles under their own plastered ceilings. The nave ceiling features two blind elongated quatrefoil decorative features said originally to have allowed illumination. At the east end, a tripartite arch arrangement consists of two four-centred arches flanking a much narrower central pointed arch; the two central piers are timber and tri-lobed.

A crypt with Norman features was discovered and sealed during the 1826 remodelling, containing two short columns with primitive capitals—one block-shaped, the other with an elementary honeysuckle motif. The arch beneath the northeast chapel is said to be 13th-century, though it lacks characteristic datable features. Late medieval fenestration indicates substantial remodelling during the later middle ages, with documented extensive rebuilding in the 1660s.

Principal fixtures include a royal arms at the west end dating from 1640 and an early 19th-century octagonal font with quatrefoils on the bowl. Three wall monuments survive: two with architectural surrounds to George Potter (died 1662), described as a great benefactor toward rebuilding the church, and to James Rodd (died 1678); a third to Thomas Bolithoe (died 1753) by Edwin Coffin of Exeter features a mourning woman at an urn. A 1946 stained glass window in the north aisle by G. Cooper Abbs depicts St Stephen being welcomed into heaven. A modern screen has been placed across the west end. The interior was largely stripped out in 1972.

The surrounding area was very badly damaged by bombing in 1942, but St Stephen's survived, though its windows were destroyed. The building is now used by various charities. As of 2009, plans were in place to insert a new doorway on the south side and redesign the interior.