Parish Church of the Holy Cross

This is one of the two largest and grandest parish churches in Devon, the other being Ottery St Mary. The bulk of the building dates from the early 15th century, but it incorporates fabric from the 12th and 13th centuries. Major restoration took place between 1848 and 1877 by John Hayward of Exeter, with further work by Hayward and Blomfield in 1887-1889, and by William Weir in 1913. The church is built of local volcanic trap and red sandstone ashlar, the 13th-century masonry being rubble, with medieval dressings in volcanic trap and Beerstone and 19th-century work in Bathstone. The roof is concealed behind parapets and is probably lead.

The long east end reflects the church's collegiate status from the 12th century until the Reformation. The plan comprises a two-bay chancel with chancel aisles; a three-bay Lady Chapel at the east end; a six-bay aisled nave with clerestory and transepts; a central crossing tower; a south-east chapter house; and a south porch. The lower parts of the crossing tower date from the mid-12th century, with upper stages from the 13th century. The Lady Chapel and south-east chapter house are 13th century. The church was described as "ruinous" in 1413, and the nave was rebuilt in the early 15th century.

Exterior

The south side is the show front, with coped embattled parapets to the aisle and clerestory. The aisle buttresses have moulded set-offs and copings. The aisle has four-light Perpendicular traceried windows, with three-light windows at the west and east ends. The clerestory has tall three-light Perpendicular traceried windows, with four-light windows to the choir clerestory.

The grand two-storey south porch, located in the third bay from the west, has merlons on the embattled parapet decorated with blind quatrefoils in Beerstone panels. The outer doorway is moulded volcanic trap below a two-light square-headed window with cinquefoil-headed lights. The porch is stone vaulted with carved foliage bosses and vaulting shafts with shallow-carved capitals. The inner doorway is moulded with a foliage-carved arch. An unusual, possibly 18th-century wrought iron gate closes the outer doorway.

The buttressed south transept has a plain coped parapet. Its south window is six-light Perpendicular tracery with a king mullion, and there is a four-light window on the east return. The semi-circular embattled stair turret at the north-west corner, with a small flat-roofed porch to the south containing a north doorway, was added to designs by George Wightwick from plans dated 1836.

The chapter house extends two bays beyond the transept and has a five-sided south-west stair turret. It has diagonal buttresses and is partly stone rubble. The building is three storeys with a plain parapet above a moulded string that rises to form the hoodmould of a pair of triple lancets in the second floor centre, flanked by single lancets, all by John Hayward in 1864. There are two first-floor and three ground-floor square-headed windows, the ground-floor windows having relieving arches. The west side has two square-headed windows, one lancet window, and a moulded two-centred doorway with a hoodmould and a probably late 17th-century studded door with Y-panelling. The moulded string below the parapet on the east rises as an ogee arch, with scattered fenestration of small square-headed windows, two with mullions. The south aisle has a three-light east end window.

The Lady Chapel, projecting beyond the chancel to the east, is rubble masonry with a plain parapet. It has two three-light 19th-century Perpendicular style windows on the south and north sides, and a blocked doorway on the south to the east. The east end of the chapel has a four-light Perpendicular window; the wall surface above thickens and is corbelled out on either side of the window.

The north choir aisle has two three-light windows to the east, then five similar windows westwards to the transept. The window in the third bay from the transept is shorter to accommodate a moulded north doorway with steps up, a circa late 17th-century studded door with Y-panelling, and an early 19th-century overthrow with a lamp. The north transept matches the south, including a semi-circular stair turret and porch block by Wightwick, but retains some rubble masonry on the west side.

The six-bay north aisle has windows matching the south aisle. The third bay from the west is blind above a wide crank-arched doorway carved with ballflowers. The grand west end ensemble has the ends of the aisles flush with the nave, which features a massive eight-light Perpendicular traceried window with a king mullion above a moulded doorway with a pair of 19th-century doors.

The three-stage embattled crossing tower has a clasping north-west stair turret. Round-headed windows to the second stage indicate 12th-century origins. The belfry stage has pairs of very tall louvred lancets flanked by blind trefoil-headed recesses. The embattled parapet is corbelled out with big octagonal embattled pinnacles with crocketted finials crowned with crosses.

Interior

The walls have been unplastered since the Hayward restoration. The internal masonry is mauve volcanic trap, very unusual in colouring. The early 15th-century nave arcades have moulded arches, the moulding carried down through the piers, which have moulded bases and engaged corner shafts with foliage-carved capitals. A moulded string with fleurons runs above the arcade, punctuated with carved corbels supporting the shafts to the 19th-century (Hayward) tie beam roof with arched braces, pierced spandrels and plainer intermediate ties. The roof has moulded ridge and purlins with moulded diagonal ribs to each bay and carved bosses at the intersections.

The clerestory windows have deep hollow-chamfered rere arches and shafts carried down to the string course. Aisle windows are similarly treated, with shafts carried down to the level of low seats. The aisles have flat 19th-century (Hayward) roofs with moulded ribs and carved bosses.

The west end has an unusual internal treatment: the projecting foliage-carved sill forms a continuous cornice across the west end, with moulded stub walls flanking the west doorway forming recesses with seats to north and south. There is a plain double arch to the tower, the piers with engaged shafts and capital carving including scallops. Plain, tall two-centred arches lead from the aisles into the crossing.

Tall ashlar walls divide the choir from the choir aisles. On the south side, a pair of tall blocked arches in the south wall probably led to a former chapel on the ground floor of the chapter house. The choir has an enriched version of the nave roof; the wall surface is similar to the nave but the vaulting shafts are carried right down to the capitals of the pier shafts.

The chancel is stepped up with a 1924 reredos by Fellowes Prynne. A 14th-century piscina in the east wall has a cusped head and sexafoil in the gable, the surface dressed back to the wall plane. The south wall contains an early 15th-century triple sedilia, very damaged, with lierne vaulting. The rear, to the aisle, includes a tomb chest with a vaulted recess and remains of high-quality figure carving and original colour.

The fine 13th-century Lady Chapel has north and south doorways from the aisles with triple chamfered arches on big half shafts with bell capitals. The windows have deep internal splays, the inner arches with shafts carried down to shallow seats below the sills. The east and two eastern windows in the north and south sides have internal hoodmoulds. There is a blocked doorway on the west wall. A late 13th-century double-gabled piscina with trefoil-headed arches, re-sited, is on the south wall. The roof is 19th century, a simplified version of the others. The transepts also have 19th-century roofs.

The Governors' room on the first floor of the chapter house has a chamfered cross beam and closely-spaced joists, a fireplace with chamfered granite lintel and jambs, and wide floorboards.

Fittings

The church contains a Norman font with a cover by Caröe from 1904. The 19th-century Perpendicular drum pulpit on a wine glass stem is carved with figures of saints. The choir stalls date from 1877-87 by Hayward; nave benches and governors' stalls in the choir are from 1900. There are 19th-century floors throughout.

Monuments

Numerous monuments include a tomb chest at the east end of the south choir aisle, said to be Sir John Sully, died 1387, and his wife. In the chancel, a standing wall monument to Sir William Perriam, died 1605, has pilasters with an entablature and achievement. The figure of Sir William leans on one elbow with his family in relief, kneeling on the chest below. A 1630 monument to John and Elizabeth Tuckfield, admired by Pevsner, shows her figure seated and flanked by medallions with busts of her husband and son, the bay divided by black Ionic columns with a broken alabaster pediment above.

A spectacular monument of 1911 by Caröe, executed by Dart and Francis of Crediton, to Sir Redvers Buller covers the tower arch facing the nave. It has terra cotta sculpted figures decorated with mosaic; the iconography of the memorial is thoroughly military, with warrior saints and a frieze of Victoria crosses.

Stained Glass

The church contains several good windows by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake; a 1913 window in the north aisle by Hugh Arnold; and an armorial window in the south transept by Horace Williamson, 1926.

Historical Note

There was a pre-Conquest cathedral on the site before Exeter became the centre of the See. After the Reformation, the church was purchased by a group of Crediton worthies and is still run by a committee of self-electing Governors. The church is well documented: recent unpublished accounts of the building and its fittings are mostly available in the archives of the Devon Nineteenth-Century Churches Project.