Church Of St Pancras

Church of St Pancras, Guildhall Square

This Grade II* listed building is a medieval urban church of significant historical importance, retaining substantial 13th-century fabric alongside later alterations and additions.

The church is constructed in red Heavitree sandstone rubble with limestone dressings and clay tile roofs. It consists of a simple two-cell plan comprising a small nave and lower chancel, which sit on a slightly different alignment. The west gable is topped by a single-light bellcote containing a medieval bell. The west wall is blank, with no windows.

The fenestration is varied across the building. The chancel features a lancet window on the north side and an uncusped Y-tracery window, with a three-light uncusped intersecting tracery window at the east end. The nave has two-light plain mullioned windows—one on the north side and two on the south—which probably date from the 16th century. Entry is through a south doorway with an almost semi-circular head.

The interior walls have been stripped of plaster, exposing the medieval fabric. The nave is spanned by an open wagon roof, while the chancel has a keel-shaped roof. A rood-loft stair survives in the north-east part of the nave. The arch between nave and chancel is of Bath stone with an inner order of chamfering rising from corbels—evidently Victorian work of 1887–89, rebuilt by the architect J L Pearson during a major restoration. This neatly finished arch contrasts markedly with the rougher surrounding medieval fabric.

The church retains several important fixtures. The oldest is a circular, tapering 12th-century font with a band of beaded ornament around the bowl's middle. The chancel contains a 13th-century piscina with a trefoil head, above which is a small square storage opening. A Jacobean polygonal pulpit with foliage around rectangular panels is also present. Two corbels on the chancel's south wall date from the 12th and 13th centuries respectively. Five wall monuments from the 18th and early 19th centuries, brought here from All Hallows' Church when it was demolished in 1906 for road widening, include a notable example to I Loveday Buller (died 1711) with a border of flowers, fruit and skulls. The bell was cast by the Exeter bell-founder Robert Norton in the 15th century. The east window contains stained glass dating from 1899.

The dedication to St Pancras suggests an ancient foundation, though the church is not documented until 1191. A doorway said to be Saxon was discovered in the chancel's south wall during late 19th-century rebuilding but no trace of it survives. The building as it exists today is probably largely 13th-century work. The church had a chequered history, being disused between 1658 and 1831. When reopened, the chancel arch was destroyed and replaced with a plain brick one; this was subsequently replaced by the present arch under J L Pearson's restoration of 1887–89. Since 1969 the church has occupied a sunken area surrounded by a shopping complex. Despite this unprepossessing setting, it remains of considerable significance as a rare survivor of the numerous medieval churches and chapels that once served Exeter.