Church Of St Mary The Virgin

This parish church has 11th-century origins, possibly Anglo-Saxon, and was rebuilt in the 15th century. Between 1878 and 1880, the nave, aisle, chancel and vestry underwent thorough renovation and substantial rebuilding by J D Gould working with the Reverend W T A Radford, with the chancel enrichment designed by G E Street.

Exterior

The tower is constructed of roughcast rubble with granite dressings, and some medieval stone rubble survives in the chancel. The 19th-century walls are built of snecked volcanic stone and mudstone with dressings in cream, red, purple and grey sandstone. The roof is slate with grey stone embattled crested ridge tiles, pierced and enriched with fleur-de-lys over the chancel. The porch has a yellow sandstone roof with purple stone crested ridge. The plan comprises a nave and chancel under a continuous roof, a north aisle with an east chapel and vestry positioned at right angles to the north of the chapel, a west tower and a south porch. The tower is Perpendicular, whilst the remainder is in Decorated Gothic style.

The 15th-century tower is low and plain, in two stages with low set-back buttresses rising to the lower dripcourse. It has a chamfered plinth and an embattled parapet. On the north side, a stair turret with tiny granite and volcanic stone slit windows projects square and rises above the tower with its own embattled parapet. The belfry has original granite two-light windows with elliptical, nearly round-headed heads. On the west side, a volcanic two-centred arch doorway has a chamfered surround with pyramid stops, containing a 19th-century plank door on strap hinges with fleur-de-lys finials. Above is a largely original volcanic stone three-light arch-headed window with simple Perpendicular tracery and a soffit-chamfered hood. A tiny light to the ringing loft appears on the south side of the tower.

The rest of the church displays a unified scheme of circa 1880 Decorated style windows, all with different designs of geometric tracery. All mullions and tracery are of Bath stone, but the surrounds use various stones. The south side of the nave is built of purple-coloured masonry enlivened by two horizontal bands of grey ashlar—one at window sill level and another at the springing level of the main arch-headed windows. There is a shallow buttress at the left end. The left end window is a small square-headed single-light window. The two main windows to the right of the porch are arch-headed windows of similar size, but the left has three lights and the right has four lights. Each has jambs of alternating purple and red ashlar with a soffit-chamfered purple arch.

The south porch is gabled with the front flanked by buttresses. The two-centred outer arch has a double ring—the inner ring of moulded Bath stone, the outer ring of soffit-chamfered volcanic stone—both onto grey moulded imposts. The volcanic responds have external niches for small red sandstone circular columns. Above the arch is a soffit-moulded dripcourse with an elaborately carved arch-headed niche in the apex containing a terracotta figure of the Virgin and Child. The purple volcanic coping at the apex is surmounted by an ornate cross. Small trefoil-headed single lights appear in each side.

The break between nave and chancel is marked by the projecting pulpit passage. This projects square with a yellow stone monopitch roof and a solid central gablet with fleur-de-lys ridge. It has a moulded eaves cornice. The purple volcanic front includes a blind four-bay arcade of bands of yellow, grey and purple stone, with the centre two bays pierced by small slit windows.

The south side of the chancel is of possibly medieval rubble and includes a single 19th-century two-light arch-headed window. The east end has a large three-light window with a moulded hood and carved vine leaf labels, with another similar in the recessed east end of the north aisle. Both gables have shaped kneelers and soffit-moulded coping with crosses on the apex—an ornate Iona cross to the chancel and a Botonee cross to the north aisle. The north side of the chancel includes a possibly 15th-century tiny round-headed lancet.

The vestry has a simple three-light window in the north gable end with a moulded hood and carved labels. The west side of the roof is carried down over an entrance lobby which includes a shoulder-headed doorway containing the original door and twin trefoil-headed lights. An ornate chimney shaft of different coloured stone rises from the vestry. The north aisle has two square-headed three-light windows with geometric tracery. There is a buttress between the windows and set-back buttresses on the west corner. The west end aisle window is three lights and similar to that at the east end.

Interior

The interior is good with a very distinctive style. The porch has an open common rafter roof with shaped collars. The sides are of patterned and coloured stone. The south doorway is a shoulder-headed arch, the lintel using a carved Anglo-Saxon tympanum of Salcombe stone. Its stylised carving is well-preserved. It may represent Daniel in the Lion's Den, although more obscure subjects have been proposed such as Adam naming beasts or the Norse myth of the god Tyr and Fenris the wolf. The 19th-century double doors have ornate strap hinges.

The 19th-century tall tower arch has a chamfered arch ring of Beer stone with a soffit containing contrasting bands of coloured stone, resting on plain soffit-chamfered imposts. Inside the tower is a 15th-century two-centred arch doorway of volcanic stone with a chamfered surround, containing the original studded plank door.

There is no chancel arch. A continuous open wagon roof spans the nave and chancel, with the break marked by a bay without purlins. The roof is heavily restored and most timbers appear to be 19th-century. It has moulded ribs and purlins and a series of 19th-century carved rose motif bosses. It retains the 1880 scheme of painted decoration. The wall plate and soffits of the common rafter trusses have geometric designs interrupted by stylised rose motifs, and the mouldings are highlighted with gold and maroon. The paintwork is more elaborate in the chancel.

The north aisle roof is an open wagon roof which appears to retain a higher proportion of 15th-century work, including many of the varied carved bosses. The break between the aisle and east chapel is marked by a ring of bosses representing the Face of the Virgin Mary. It is painted like the nave roof.

A 15th-century granite four-bay arcade runs between nave and aisle, with one bay overlapping to the chancel. It has moulded piers (Pevsner's Cornish A-type) with simple capitals to shafts only. A large 19th-century volcanic arch with a broad bead-moulded soffit leads to the vestry, which has a boarded vaulted roof with ribs of arch-braced trusses showing.

The north aisle wall is of exposed plain masonry, but the wall over the arcade (both sides) and the south wall of the nave are faced with 19th-century ashlar in which different coloured stones are employed to produce a distinctive decorative effect. The nave includes small blocks of Beer stone carved with sacred symbols, and the arcade has mosaic friezes over the arches. The nave arcade and aisle include projecting blocks of Beer stone which were obviously intended for carved enrichment but were not finished. The north wall, the roofs and vestry were designed by J D Gould. The stone patterning was by Gould in collaboration with Reverend W T A Radford. The chancel, however, was designed by G E Street.

The chancel is plastered with a rich wainscotting of Nottingham alabaster. The wainscotting is enriched with panels of sunken circles with chamfered surrounds to coloured marble, and each circle is framed by black fleur-de-lys of inlaid marble. An ornate alabaster reredos comprises three panels. The larger central panel has an embattled cornice and carved leaf frame around a delicate pattern of polychrome mosaic, flanked by panels with sunken quatrefoils containing carved angels against a ground of blue mosaic. A brass altar cross was also designed by Street. On the south wall is a Beer stone arch-headed piscina and credence, the back of which is a polychrome mosaic of the Pelican in her Piety under a Holy Grail. The alabaster and marble work was executed by Earp of Pimlico and the mosaics by Salviati. The superior brass altar rail has double standards filled with Gothic tracery and embellished with coloured glass and enamel, designed by Gould.

Most of the floor is of black and red tiles, but the chancel has patterns of encaustic tiles. The north chapel has a marble altar shelf (grey with inlaid red lozenges and black Latin cross) resting on carved Beer stone brackets, and below is more patterned stonework including a band of alabaster with inlaid marble. The floor below has encaustic tiles set in a mosaic pattern of tiny tiles framed with marble. To the right is a tiny tent-headed niche which may be medieval.

The chancel has 19th-century Gothic oak stalls. The oak rood screen includes a little 15th-century work, but enough to show that the rebuild is a faithful reproduction of the original. The wainscotting has applied Perpendicular tracery with lower scenes of quatrefoils. The windows are of Pevsner's A-type tracery and the coving includes Gothic-only decoration. A rich cornice comprises four bands of delicately carved and undercut foliage. The restoration work was professionally carried out by Zacharia and William Bushell, local master joiners who lived close by in Bushells Cottages, and whose work is commemorated in an inscribed plaque over the south door.

A magnificent pulpit by Gould is entered from the chancel by the projecting pulpit passage. The stone base of different-coloured stone includes a stem of clustered shafts with moulded capitals and bases and has a circular drum of ornate wrought iron and brasswork embellished with jewel-like coloured glass. A 19th-century oak lectern stands in the church. All benches, including one in the chapel, are oak and of good early 16th-century craftsmanship. The frontals and rear benches have blind arcades of applied Perpendicular tracery. The bench ends are carved with frames of wreathed foliage flowing from vases. Most are carved with a two-bay arcade of tracery with quatrefoils at the base and featuring bas-relief Renaissance motifs including faces, symbols of the Passion, etc. A 19th-century prie-dieu uses 16th-century carved bench ends.

A 15th-century granite font has an octagonal bowl and base with a moulded stem, and a 19th-century hood. A 17th-century chest stands in the chapel. The organ was rebuilt in 1932 according to a plaque.

Good 19th-century stained glass appears throughout. The chancel glass is by Hardman of Birmingham, the rest by Clayton and Bell. The finest is the Mary Thain memorial (died 1886), the Jesse window at the west end of the aisle. The only memorial is a white marble plaque in the north aisle remembering First World War dead.

Historical Significance

Besides the Anglo-Saxon tympanum, the church includes high quality 19th-century work. The Reverend W T A Radford determined the whole shape of the restoration. He was squire, parson, patron and incumbent. For half a century he was one of the most important figures in the High Church movement in the Diocese of Exeter and also had strong and well-informed views on architecture. He was a founder member of the Exeter Diocesan Architectural Society and his friends included G E Street and Clayton and Bell.