Church Of St Swithun

Church of St Swithun

Originally a chapel belonging to the Church of Holy Cross, Crediton, St Swithun has Norman origins but was completely rebuilt around 1520. The building was cleverly renovated in 1847-8 by John Haywood of Exeter, when the nave roof was raised and a clerestory added, a new chancel and sacristy were built, and seating rearranged.

The church is constructed of squared volcanic stone rubble, some coursed, with volcanic stone details mostly replaced with Beer stone in the 19th century. The roof is slate. The building now consists of a nave with full-length north and south aisles, a chancel, a southern sacristy, a west tower and a south porch. Before the 1847-8 renovation, the chancel occupied the east end of the present nave with flanking chapels in the aisles. The architecture throughout is Late Perpendicular in style.

The unbuttressed west tower has a chamfered plinth and embattled parapet. The north side features a projecting square-sided stair turret rising above the parapet with its own embattled parapet, surmounted by a 19th-century brass weather vane. The tower has restored Beer stone 2-light belfry windows with cinquefoil heads on each side. The west face displays an arched doorway with moulded surround beneath a 2-light Perpendicular window with 19th-century Beer stone tracery and hoodmould. The south side includes an original single-light window with cinquefoil head to the ringing loft and a 19th-century painted clock-face.

The west ends of both north and south aisles have 19th-century Perpendicular-style 2-light, transomed Beer stone windows with hoodmoulds. Three windows along the fronts of the north and south aisles, as well as those in the east ends of the aisles, are all similar 3-light Perpendicular windows with early 16th-century volcanic stone sides and restored Beer stone tracery and hoodmoulds.

A gable-ended porch projects towards the left of the south front, with kneelers and volcanic stone coping and a moulded almost round-headed arch. Towards the right end is a small round-headed priest's door. Between the porch and priest's door, a painted sundial dated 1818 is fixed high on the wall. Two memorial stones are set into the wall above the plinth; the right one is a rectangular plaque of grey limestone recording the death of Margaret Burrington of West Sandford (died 1673) above a primitive smiling skull and crossbones with a ribbon inscribed 'Ob dormisco'.

The 19th-century sacristy is gable-ended to the south with a square-headed 2-light Beer stone window with ogee heads. The 19th-century chancel has off-set buttresses, a large Perpendicular-style window at the east end and single cinquefoil-headed lancets on each side wall. Towards the right end of the north front is a small door with a 20th-century restored head to the west gallery. Beer stone coping and obelisk finials to the north aisle gables are possibly original.

Interior

The south door is an almost round-headed volcanic arch, moulded. Both north and south aisles have original continuous ceiled waggon roofs of around 1520 with elaborately carved wall-plates, moulded ribs and carved bosses. The nave was raised in 1847-8 and given a clerestory of 2-light Beer stone windows with cinquefoil heads. The ceiled waggon roof is similar to those in the aisles and appears to retain a great deal of early 16th-century work stabilised by 19th-century tie beams with curved braces to wall-legs.

Five-bay Beer stone arcades flank each side, with moulded piers of Pevsner's Type B and undercut foliage on the capitals. The eastern two bays originally housed the chancel with chapels in each aisle; the moulded piers at this end are carried higher and the capitals have finer quality carving. The early 16th-century nave-chancel break is marked by blocked rood stair doorways in the north wall. The corresponding pier in the north arcade includes a small carving to the nave of two boys tearing each other's hair out, thought by some to represent an incident in 1126 when a man was killed during a fight in Mass, leading to the closure of the chapel for eleven years. The flagged floor includes some 17th and 18th-century ledger slabs.

A large west gallery of high quality craftsmanship, built of oak in 1657 at the cost of John Davie of Creedy Park to accommodate children from the local poorhouse, is a notable feature. The main gallery rests on fluted Corinthian columns with ornate scroll stops and carved pedestals, while the forward side wings rest on turned Doric columns with plain scroll stops and pedestals. The parapet, on an ovolo-moulded bressumer, has ornate arcaded panels separated by acanthus consoles with Ionic caps beneath a continuous frieze of chip-carved lunettes enclosing stylised leaf motifs and a dentil cornice.

The late 16th and early 17th-century benches were remodelled in the late 18th century and rearranged in 1847-8, but most bench-ends are fine examples of late 16th and early 17th-century carving with a mixture of Gothic and Renaissance motifs. Most have borders of twisted foliage with half-engaged column bases and bar-scroll stops and feature vigorous bas-relief carvings of royal figures, New World natives, fabulous beasts and plants and trees.

Most other furnishings date from the mid-19th century, including a panelled pulpit, carved oak eagle lectern, mahogany altar rail with twisted and turned balusters, and Beer stone font. The carved oak chancel screen is a First World War memorial, moved towards the east end of the chancel in 1967.

The church contains several good memorials, mainly to the Davie, later Ferguson-Davie, family of Creedy Park. The south chancel wall has a large late 17th-century Davie marble wall memorial comprising an architecturally framed plaque flanked by free-standing Corinthian columns, with the moulded entablature surmounted by the Davie arms with flanking cartouches and the moulded sill on consoles. Other notable Davie memorials include a small marble-framed plaque of 1627 at the east end of the north aisle with an obituary of Julia Davie, a marble drapery plaque of 1764 on the south wall of the chancel, and a marble memorial of 1840 depicting the Good Samaritan in bas-relief. In the east end of the south aisle is a framed painted board surmounted by the Davie arms recording the gift in 1675 by John Davie of Prouze of the rents of nearby houses to six poor husbandmen.

The north aisle includes a good quality late brass of 1604 recording and depicting the death of Mary Dowrich, remounted and restored by her descendants in 1866. The east chancel window of 20th-century leaded glass includes good 19th-century stained glass figures by Merick, and the Ferguson-Davie memorial windows of 1885 and 1889 in the east windows of each aisle are both by Warrington of London.

A fine mid to late 17th-century chest with ornate carving and arcaded, panelled sides features panels with inlaid marquetry patterns including the initials ET, WS and TP. The tower, inaccessible, houses a clock made around 1815 for All Saints, Kenton by Henry Pyke of Kingsteingnton and installed here in 1922.

History

St Swithun was originally a chapel belonging to the Church of Holy Cross, Crediton. It was closed from 1126 to 1137 after a murder during mass and was closed again in 1437. It was reopened in 1523-4 with a licence for a burial ground. It progressed from being a private chapel to a 19th-century Chapel of Ease and in 1928 joined with the Church of St Mary, Upon Hellions to become a parish church.