Ashill Church

Ashill Church is a chapel of ease with an attached hall, built in 1882 to designs by R M Fulford. It features red brick in Flemish bond with Ham Hill stone dressings and a tiled roof, with crested ridge tiles on the chancel. The layout includes a nave, a south porch, and a chancel, with a bellcote at the east apex of the nave gable wall above the chancel arch. The hall is located to the north, set transeptally, and is separated from the church by a removable internal glazed partition.

On the exterior, the south side has a porch set well to the west under a catslide roof, featuring a three-bay front with a central chamfered entrance arch beneath a small gable, flanked by two-light square-headed windows set high under the eaves. The nave's south wall displays a set of triple and double trefoil-headed lancets with a buttress in between. The chancel has single and paired lancets, and a stone bellcote with a pyramidal roof and trefoil-headed openings to the west and east, corbelled out over the nave's east gable wall. The east window is a three-light Decorated style, with diagonal buttresses on the east wall, while the west end features triple lancets under a brick superordinate window arch, with clasping buttresses.

The north side includes the transeptally placed hall, which has a half-hipped roof and a variety of window types, along with a tall external stack to the east. There are lancets on both the nave and chancel.

Inside, the nave consists of four bays with a double-chamfered chancel arch. The roof principals are scissor-braced with arched brace collars. The interior also features a low chancel screen, contemporary chancel furniture, and nave benches, with a sanctuary that has a tiled floor and dado. Patterned glass, likely by Drake, survives throughout, and there is a half-glazed vertically-sliding partition between the nave and hall. This church represents a carefully organized design that successfully integrates secular and ecclesiastical elements, showcasing imaginative use of materials and attention to detail, all achieved on a limited budget. It is a notable example of the work of this important 19th-century Devon architect.