Church Of St Cyriac And St Julitta

Church of St Cyriac and St Julitta

Parish church with Medieval origins, extensively rebuilt with a new north side in the early 15th century. The porch was probably added in the late 16th or early 17th century. The building was restored between 1914 and 1921. The walls are of rubble construction incorporating sections of dressed volcanic stone from Posbury, with Beerstone details. Slate roofs cover the building throughout. The architectural style is Early Perpendicular throughout.

The church comprises a nave of three long bays with a south porch and chapel, a north aisle including a Lady Chapel under a separate roof, and a west tower. Most of the original tracery survives, though some external detail was restored during the 20th-century works. A window to the left of the porch retains traces of early pink colour. The porch hood features carved faces. The tower has two stages with low diagonal buttresses to the west, an embattled parapet, and a five-sided stair-turret to the south that projects above the tower as an octagon with its own embattled parapet. An 18th-century wrought-iron weathercock crowns the tower. A painted wooden clock-face remains on the north side, although it is now without its single hand and dates to the 18th century.

The south porch has a moulded round-headed arch, a small Beerstone niche under the gable, and a ceiled wagon-roof with carved bosses and crenellated wall-plates. The north elevation is divided into five bays by buttresses. These buttresses incorporate small Beerstone canopied niches, some containing contemporary figure sculpture. An embattled parapet with restored finials runs along this elevation.

Interior features include nave, chancel and aisle spaces largely retaining their original ceiled wagon-roofs with carved bosses. The south door has a tall round-headed rear-arch with a chamfered surround, and a mutilated stoup stands to its left. The tower arch is tall and unmoulded with imposts, possibly earlier than the main rebuild. A blocked door to the rood loft is visible in the south wall. The chancel-arch is moulded and leads to a slightly lower chancel. A four-bay Beerstone arcade separates the nave and aisle, featuring moulded piers with foliate capitals of Pevsner's B-type. Between the chancel and north aisle is a similar double-thickness arch with recessed panels and trefoil heads. Windows in the north aisle have moulded rear-arches with shafts and capitals.

The Lady Chapel contains a piscina of around 1400 with a nodding ogee arch and pinnacled shafts. Nearby in the east wall, the aumbry features a small carved-oak door of the 16th century, probably Flemish in origin. A late 19th-century reredos and 20th-century furnishings and font are also present.

The tower houses a clock made in 1711 by Lewes Pridham of Sandford, restored around 1970. A 17th-century framed staircase with turned balusters leads to the first floor. An 18th-century mahogany pulpit has a large sounding board surmounted by a gilded dove. Altar rails from the 18th century and a 20th-century oak lectern are present; the lectern incorporates a 16th-century carved-chestnut panel of high quality, Flemish or Spanish work, depicting Jesus washing his disciples' feet.

Near the south door are painted arms of James II dated 1685. The north aisle contains four hatchments bearing Quicke-family arms.

At the east end of the north aisle stands a very fine large marble monument to Sir John Northcotte (1570-1632) of Hayne Barton, erected by his son. The son's lifesize figure kneels below alongside his wife and children. Sir John is represented in armour beneath the Northcotte arms and the heads of his father and grandfather, flanked by oval medallions showing half-profiles of his two wives. The monument remains unrestored and retains some original paint. On the south wall of the chancel is a small marble monument to the young Sherland Short (1632), represented as a student. Other good monuments from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries are also present.

The bell chamber was not inspected at the time of listing.