Church Of St Mary Steps

Church of St Mary Steps, West Street, Exeter

This is a 15th-century church built of red Heavitree stone in large blocks with limestone dressings and slate roofs. It underwent restoration in 1868–72 by the architect Edward Ashworth, and the chancel was reordered by Lawrence King in 1966. A late 19th or early 20th-century red-brick utilitarian vestry stands to the northwest.

The church comprises a nave, chancel, southwest tower, south aisle, south chapel, and northwest vestry. It occupies a constricted medieval site within the walls of old Exeter, with the ground rising sharply to the north. The east wall angles in relation to the body of the building, making the church longer on the north side than the south. The south aisle is set high to balance levels with the chancel.

The main south façade presents the south aisle and tower to the street. The aisle has three three-light Perpendicular windows with panel tracery, renewed during the 19th-century restoration. Beneath the southeast window is a plain round-headed doorway, with a three-light mullioned window below the southeast chapel, once a porter's lodge. Both the aisle and tower are embattled. The unbuttressed tower is tall, two-storeyed, and forms the entrance porch. Its base has a round-arch doorway with a gentle, continuous wave moulding. Above is a two-light window. At the base of the second stage stands a niche with cusped ogee canopy, pinnacles, and buttresses, containing three armed figures known as the quarter jacks—Matthew the Miller and his sons—dated 1620–21. The central figure wears a breastplate and helmet; the flanking figures carry pikes. Above them is a notable clock of 1619 with a rotating dial showing the sun pointing to the hour and the moon at one end of the minute hand. The dial figures are believed to represent Apollo, Diana, Ceres, and Minerva. The belfry windows are small, two-light openings. A stair-turret in the southwest corner is indicated by three small windows. The chancel's three-light east window has 19th-century cusped intersecting tracery, immediately north of a blocked round-headed doorway.

The interior is plastered and whitened. Entry is up ten steps from the street through the tower base. The nave's west end flanks the tower, followed by one wide four-centred capital-less arch to the aisle, then a similar arch from the chancel to the south chapel. Ceilings over the nave and aisle are segmental in section, divided into panels by moulded ribs. Nave and chancel bosses date from the 15th century; those in the south aisle are from the 19th-century restoration.

The oldest fixture is a circular, slightly tapering Norman font with four bands of varied ornament including wavy trails, blind arches, and chevrons. Its cover was carved by the Exeter firm Harry Hems. The most prominent feature is the screen: the section between aisle and south chapel is 15th-century work acquired in 1866 from the demolished medieval church of St Mary Major near the cathedral's west end. The nave-to-chancel screen follows its design and is the work of Edward Ashworth and Harry Hems, with a dado decorated with figures in typical late medieval Devon style. The 19th-century chancel altar has an alabaster top and a tripartite frontal carved with the Virgin and Child flanked by adoring angels. Bench seating in the nave features attractive square, traceried ends. The stone pulpit is of wine-glass type with a traceried polygonal top and dates from the 19th-century restoration. The east window of the south chapel contains stained glass recording a death date of 1861. The chancel's east window, replacing glass lost in the war, is the work of John Hayward (1966) and depicts Christ in Majesty.

The church is recorded in 1199 as originally comprising only a nave and chancel. The aisle, chapel, and tower were probably added in the 15th century. Located opposite the west gate of the walled city, it takes its name from the medieval street Stepcote Hill immediately to the east. The room below the chancel formerly served as a porter's lodge. Like other surviving medieval Exeter churches, St Mary Steps received a major restoration in the later 19th century (1866–72) under local architect Edward Ashworth (1814–96). Ashworth was articled to Robert Cornish of Exeter and later trained under London architect Charles Fowler. He emigrated to New Zealand in 1842, practising in Auckland until January 1844, before returning in 1846 to establish himself as a church architect in Exeter. The main 20th-century contribution was Lawrence King's reordering of the chancel, including reflooring, in 1966.