Church Of St Matthew

CHURCH OF ST MATTHEW

Parish church. Some late 12th-century to early 13th-century fabric survives in the nave and chancel, but most of the fabric is 15th century and early 16th century. The chancel was heavily restored in 1877 and the rest of the church renovated in 1897. Constructed of roughly-squared blocks of mostly local mudstone but includes some volcanic stone and tends to courses, with granite ashlar dressings and detail. Restoration work is of snecked masonry and Bath stone, with some volcanic ashlar detail. Slate roofs. The nave and chancel are under a continuous roof. North and south aisles both include east end chapels but do not extend as far as the end of the chancel. The south aisle has the Barton Chapel; the north aisle has the Evans Chapel. West tower and south porch. Perpendicular style throughout.

Exterior

The west tower is probably late 15th century, of two stages with diagonal buttresses, embattled parapet, and drip courses carried round the buttresses. The belfry has granite two-light windows with plain, almost round-arched heads. Two of the windows are partly obscured by early 20th-century open metal clock faces. On the north side, a semi-octagonal stair turret with tiny slit windows projects and is surmounted by its own embattled parapet a little higher than the main parapet. On the west side of the tower is a 15th-century granite two-centred arched doorway with wave-moulded surround and cushion stops. The drip course once carried over the arch as a hood. The door is late 19th century. Above the door is a 19th-century replacement three-light window with Perpendicular tracery and moulded hood. The south side includes an original small light to the ringing floor.

The west gable end of the south aisle has plain 19th-century bargeboards and includes a late 15th-century to early 16th-century tall square-headed granite window. Each of three lights has elliptical heads with sunken spandrels and moulded hood over. The south side is four bays with three windows and the porch left of centre. The two adjoining windows have a buttress between and the whole is flanked by diagonal buttresses. The windows are all late 15th-century granite, three lights, arch-headed with Perpendicular tracery and moulded hoods, but all are different in size. There is another large example in the east gable end. The contemporary porch was originally flat-roofed but made gable-ended in the late 19th century. Flanked by diagonal buttresses, the outer two-centred granite arch has a moulded surround. There is an apparently 19th-century ashlar chimney shaft to the right of the porch, now redundant. A couple of broken but high quality 18th-century slate headstones are leaning against the east end of the aisle.

The chancel appears mostly late 19th-century work. Its south side contains a volcanic stone four-centred arch-headed priest's doorway with chamfered surround, and to the right a square-headed two-light window with cinquefoil heads, sunken spandrels and moulded hood. The east gable end has shaped kneelers, coping and is surmounted by a plain Latin cross, and contains a large Bath stone three-light window with Perpendicular-style tracery and a moulded hood with the labels carved as a bishop and kings' heads.

The east gable end of the north aisle is recessed but not as far as the south aisle. It is roughcast and contains a late 15th-century to early 16th-century granite square-headed three-light window with elliptical heads, sunken spandrels and moulded hood. The north aisle has a three-window front. The left end, the Evans Chapel, is roughcast and contains a 19th-century replacement volcanic stone square-headed three-light window with two-centred arch-headed lights, sunken spandrels and moulded hood, and to the right is a Tudor arch-headed granite priest's door. This section is separated from the rest by a projecting rood stair turret. The other two windows are 19th-century Bath stone replacement three-light windows with Perpendicular-style tracery and are separated by a buttress. The west gable end was much rebuilt in the 19th century with shaped kneelers and coping and includes a large Bath stone lancet. The north aisle does not extend to the west end of the nave and therefore a section of the north wall of the nave is exposed; it is late 12th-century to early 13th-century fabric containing a large blocked pointed arch of sandstone.

Interior

The porch has an attractive floor of small pitched cobbles around three flagstones. A slate memorial to John Ridd, curate (died 1810) is fixed to the west wall. The roof dates from 1897. The south doorway is a late 15th-century to early 16th-century granite four-centred arch with moulded surround and ramshead stops. The plank door is 19th century.

The nave has an open barrel-vaulted roof of common rafter trusses. It has been mended and backed with pine boards in the 19th century but is mostly 15th-century carpentry. Originally only a moulded purlin under the collars showed. There is no chancel arch and the roof pitch is carried through, but the chancel roof springs from a lower level. It is a similar open barrel-vaulted roof of common rafter trusses and again appears mostly 15th-century work.

Both aisles have late 15th-century to early 16th-century ceiled wagon roofs. The south aisle roof is the finer of the two and may be slightly earlier than the northern roof. Only a few of the moulded oak ribs and purlins have been replaced and most of the carved oak trusses survive; they are square and carved with a variety of motifs such as sacred monograms, the Tudor rose and heraldic and fabulous creatures. A couple are inscribed but unreadable from the floor. The north aisle has a six-bay roof with ovolo-moulded ribs and purlins, simple square bosses carved with geometric designs and plain wall plate; and the section over the Evans Chapel is a plain ceiled barrel vault.

The 15th-century tower arch is tall and plain, and the inside of the tower was inaccessible at the time of survey. Walls of the north aisle, the nave and Evans Chapel are stripped of their plaster. All the windows have hollow-chamfered inner arches. The blocked late 12th-century to early 13th-century arch in the nave is now a recess with simple soffit-chamfered imposts. The north side of the chancel has a small blocked round-headed window in a deeply-splayed embrasure around which the ashlar voussoirs alternate between cream-coloured Salcombe stone and purple volcanic. It is presumably Norman.

There are similar tall granite arcades either side of the nave. Both have moulded piers (Pevsner's Type A) with plain caps to the shafts only. The southern arcade is four bays with one overlapping the chancel. The northern arcade is also four bays with two overlapping the chancel. The first in the chancel is narrower than the others and the arch is awkwardly askew. At the west end the respond cap has wreathed bead and ribbon enrichment and includes an heraldic achievement. The abaci in the chancel also include some carved enrichment whilst that on the cap of the east end respond bears the legend 'orate pro anima Jones Evans'.

The floor of the nave and south aisle is 19th-century parquet but includes two coffin-shaped graveslabs. The oldest near the west end may be 13th century and has a bas-relief cross bottonée. Another near the Barton Chapel is probably 17th century but the surname and date have worn away. Both are accompanied by panels of reset 16th-century or 17th-century green-glazed relief-decorated tiles. The north aisle and chancel have patterns of different-coloured 19th-century tile and include some more relief-decorated tiles. In the chancel there is also the odd 19th-century encaustic tile. The altar is flanked by reset graveslabs, one in memory of Mary Vickrey (died 1726) to the left and the other to the right in memory of Thomas Holc... (died 1650) has been cut to fit.

Screens and Furnishings

Very good and little restored late 15th-century to early 16th-century oak rood screen across chancel and both aisles. It is 12 bays with double doors to the aisles and chancel, all hung on original butterfly hinges. Each bay has slender Perpendicular tracery (Pevsner's A type) over panelled wainscotting with applied tracery. The middle rail and window reveals have carved scrolled wreathworks and each post is moulded with clustered shafts and plain caps similar to those on the arcade. The ribbed coving above is filled with good quality Gothic tracery and there is a frieze of three bands of delicate and densely carved foliage. On the reverse of the coving in the Barton Chapel one carving does not keep to the pattern and represents the upside-down head of a Tudor lady with an enormous tongue. At the left end is the blocked granite three-centred archway to the rood stairs.

On the north side of the vestry, the larger arcade arch to the Evans Chapel contains a reset late 15th-century to early 16th-century oak parclose screen. It has been cut at each end to fit but is otherwise well-preserved and very little restored. It faces into the chapel and is five bays with central doorway and the outer bays incomplete. The wainscotting contains linenfold panelling. The windows are square-headed and three lights with twisted mullions and the head filled with Flamboyant tracery and each tracery opening is further subdivided by a lacework of tiny Flamboyant curves. The door appears to be a restoration reusing some original oak. Each bay is separated by timber buttresses carved with crocketted finials. The headbeam is carved with a single cornice of fruiting vine. There are two pinnacles with crocketted finials and between there are the fragmentary remains of delicate openwork crestwork apparently carved in the same style as the sub-tracery. This unusual screen is thought to be the work of Breton craftsmen and is very similar to screens at nearby Brushford and Colebrooke.

The other northern arcade bay has plain early oak-framed wainscotting and the southern arcade bay has probably late 17th-century to early 18th-century pine scratch-moulded panelled wainscotting. The chancel has a plain 20th-century oak altar rail and 19th-century stalls. The Barton Chapel has a small piscina reset in the southern window sill.

Evans Chapel

The Evans Chapel is now used as the vestry. The north wall has the table tomb of John Evans (died 1511 according to an inscription on a bench in the Barton Chapel). It is recessed into the wall under a granite ogee arch with moulded surround and ramshead stops. There is the carved Beerstone recumbent effigy of Sir John in chain mail with a surcoat. A somewhat defaced angel by his head holds a shield which bears the legend 'John Evas' (sic). A projecting ledge of granite below bears a series of holes along the top from now-missing railings.

Pulpit and Furniture

The pulpit is a carefully renovated late 15th-century to early 16th-century oak pulpit. The octagonal drum has shafts carved in bayleaf frames and nodding ogee canopies with delicately carved openwork tracery above. The niches below were intended for figures of saints. The cornice is of similarly carved vine leaves. The oak lectern is late 19th-century to early 20th-century but the front includes a panel of oak carved in the same style as the pulpit and screen.

The nave benches are late 19th century, possibly reusing older fielded panelling. The aisles and Barton Chapel however contain late 15th-century and early 16th-century benches. In the Barton Chapel, the bench ends have wreathed frames around simple blind tracery. The bench frontal, possibly from a prayer desk, has a linenfold front and the desk top was inscribed or recut in the 19th century in Latin in memory of John Evans (died 1511). The south aisle bench ends have moulded frames and are carved with geometric patterns. One includes a head of John the Baptist on a platter motif. The north aisle bench ends also have moulded frames but are plain and undecorated.

The Barton Chapel includes a 17th-century oak table with heavy turned legs. There is also an oak chest of circa 1800 with a lobed frieze across the front over panels containing lozenge enrichment and fluted muntins. To the right of the south door is a 17th-century oak hutch with a chip-carved front of fleur-de-lys and geometric flower motifs.

Font

The granite font is late 12th-century to early 13th-century on a late 19th-century stone base. The square bowl has scalloped arcades along the sides and is supported by a circular stem with minor columns on each corner. The pyramidal oak cover is probably 17th century.

Stained Glass

There are no mural monuments except for a brass plaque on the south aisle wall recording the erection of the clock as a First World War memorial. Some early glass. The east window of the Evans Chapel includes a 16th-century stained glass figure representing Edward VI holding a book and sceptre beneath a crown from which flows ermine. There are some other contemporary stained glass fragments in the south aisle. The north aisle window tracery includes some green glass and the east window of the Barton Chapel has some blue-tinted bottle glass in the top lights.

Source: Church guide.