Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary is a parish church with medieval origins, extensively rebuilt in 1848. The 12th-century font survives, and both Cresswell and Pevsner suggest the tower dates from the 13th century. A south aisle was added in the 15th century. The fabric of the nave, chancel and aisle was thoroughly rebuilt in 1848, although the nave and chancel are probably 13th-century in origin. The church is built of snecked volcanic trap with 19th-century Bath stone dressings; the west tower masonry is of large dimensions. The roof has fishscale tiles, with Roman tiles to the vestry.

The site slopes sharply down to the west, so the sill of the east window is close to ground level of the churchyard. The plan comprises a nave, chancel, four-bay south aisle, west tower, north-east vestry and south porch. Descriptions of the church before the 1848 restoration indicate that the fabric of the nave and chancel were 13th-century Early English, and the tower may be contemporary. The south aisle was added in Perpendicular style in the 15th century. In 1847 the church was described as in "a decayed state" (Cresswell), and in 1848 most of the fabric appears to have been rebuilt with Decorated tracery and good details, including the buttresses. The manor of Bickleigh belonged to the Carew family for a long period, and there are a number of Carew monuments in the church.

The chancel fabric appears to be wholly of 1848, with coped gable angle buttresses and a three-light Decorated style east window with a hoodmould and carved label stops. There is a one-light trefoil-headed south window. The 19th-century gabled vestry on the north side has a north end stack with a stone shaft. The east window of the vestry is square-headed with two cusped lights; the west doorway has a segmental double-chamfered arch. Below the ground level of the churchyard on the south side of the chancel, a slate-capped abutment may be all that remains of the pre-1848 fabric.

The nave has three 19th-century buttresses with set-offs and four 19th-century three-light Decorated style windows with hoodmoulds and carved label stops. It also appears to be wholly of 1848, with an obvious junction with the earlier masonry of the tower at the west end. The south aisle has diagonal buttresses, coped buttresses to the south side and north and south coped gables crowned with stone crosses. All the windows are two-light 1848 Decorated style with hoodmoulds and carved label stops.

The battlemented three-stage west tower (one string course only) is battered and unbuttressed, with a large projecting rectangular north stair turret with slit windows. The scale of the turret is surprising, as is its position on the north side, away from the entrance elevation of the church. Three steps lead up to the shallow-moulded volcanic trap west doorway with a pointed segmental arch and cushion stops. There is a three-light Decorated style west window with a hoodmould; a clock is positioned above the window. Two-light square-headed cusped belfry openings appear on all four faces, with a similar lower opening on the south face.

The 1848 porch has diagonal buttresses, a coped gable and a two-centred deeply-moulded outer doorway with a hoodmould with carved label stops representing the Bishop of the Diocese and Queen Victoria. The chamfered semi-circular inner doorway, with the arch springing from chamfered imposts, may be 12th-century or an 1848 re-cutting or copy. The 1848 door has strap hinges.

Inside, the walls are plastered. There is no chancel arch. The tower arch is double-chamfered, with the inner order dying into the walls. The four-bay Beer stone south arcade has one bay to the chancel, with shallow-moulded four-centred arches springing from piers with corner shafts and good varied carved capitals. The 1848 roofs of the nave and chancel are arch-braced, springing from hammerbeams above stone corbels, with moulded purlins and a king post above the brattished collar. The aisle roof is similar but without the hammerbeams.

There is a very complete 19th-century sanctuary with tiling and an 1848 or later Bath stone reredos gabled in the centre with a blind trefoil-headed niche with painted diaper work and painted carvings of lilies to left and right. The reredos extends to left and right as a blind arcade with marble shafts. The 19th-century timber altar rail is carved with quatrefoils. The 19th-century choir stalls have traceried ends incorporating some medieval ends. The 18th-century five-sided drum pulpit has simple panelling and a moulded cornice. The nave benches are banked up at the west end and include a number of medieval ends with two tiers of tracery. One bench end includes a lively figure, possibly connected with the wool trade. The octagonal tub font has a circular rim carved with pellets and crosses. There is a 20th-century tower screen.

There are numerous monuments. On the north and south walls of the sanctuary are 19th-century niches with earlier chest tombs below. The chest on the north side, commemorating John Carew (died 1588), has a Purbeck slab with armorial bearings on the wall above the chest. The south chest commemorates the Reverend John West Carew (died 1826), with a brass on the lid and armorial bearings above. High on the north wall of the sanctuary, a wall monument with Corinthian columns and an inscription panel with a cartouche includes two freestanding figures which appear to have originated from a different monument; one is a kneeling man, the other a seated child. Above the vestry door is a good memorial to Henry Baker (died 1849) in the form of a spherical triangle with blind tracery and brass inscriptions. A Gothic gabled monument in the south wall commemorates Francis Carew (died 1848). A 17th-century ledger stone is used as a chancel floor slab.

The east end of the south aisle contains two grand Carew family monuments. On the south wall, a stiff figure of Elizabeth Eriseyes, née Carew (died 1618), reclines on a chest below an arch flanked by Corinthian columns. The monument is crowned by an achievement and putti, with obelisks to left and right. The chest is decorated with strapwork, and a baby in a cradle is placed in front of the main figure on a shelf above the chest, with two notably rustic putti seated on stools, dabbing their eyes with handkerchiefs; below the arch, an elaborate cartouche frames a verse. The architectural detail and ornament is of a higher quality than the figures. Against the east wall, and partly filling the east window of the aisle, is a rather mutilated monument (which may have been moved) to Sir Henry Carew (died 1681) and Dorothy, his wife (died 1676). He lies on a tomb chest with pairs of kneelers at his head and feet; his wife reclines on the window sill above him with an inscription panel behind her crowned by an achievement and figures. The tomb chest is decorated with panels with pots of flowers carved in relief. The quality is high. A wall monument on the south wall of the aisle commemorates Peter Carew (died 1654) and his wife (died 1619). Busts in relief appear in round-headed niches flanked by Tuscan columns, with an inscription panel between; the monument is crowned by an achievement. A First World War brass memorial on the north wall is signed by Wippell and Co.

Stained glass includes the east window to Thomas Carew (died 1848) and his wife (died 1857), by William Wailes. A good south chancel window features a trail of passion flowers. A window in the nave commemorating Robert Baker Carew (died 1899) is probably by Drake of Exeter. Several other windows are filled with 19th-century painted and stamped quarries which Cresswell suggests may have been copied from medieval originals.

Bampfylde Moore Carew, "the king of the gypsies", is said to have been buried here in 1758. The 1848 restoration is progressive for its date with good craftsmanship. The architect is unknown to date but may be John Hayward of Exeter.