Church Of St Paul

Church of St Paul

Parish church built 1854-6 by Manners and Gill of Bath. The building is constructed in local purple-red squared stone rubble with Bath stone dressings and a slated roof.

The church is designed in the Early English style. It comprises a nave with north and south aisles, a chancel with north and south chapels, and a south porch. A three-stage tower with a spire rises from the south side at the junction of the aisle and chancel chapel, with a two-storey vestry in the corresponding position on the north side.

Externally, the windows throughout the main body of the church are pointed-arched with hoodmoulds. These have two traceried lights on the north and south sides, three at each end of the aisles and chancel chapels, four at the west end of the nave, and five at the east end. Buttresses project from all four sides, and the eaves are finished with plain corbel tables. Stone crosses stand on the three gables at each end.

The tower is divided into three stages with angle-buttresses. Its south side features a doorway with a pointed arch and attached columns; the hoodmould has carved heads at its terminals. Above is a single-light pointed window, with round windows in the second stage, and two-light bellchamber openings with pointed arches in the third stage. A broad spire with lucarnes crowns the tower.

The gabled south porch has angle-buttresses and a moulded doorway with pointed arch and carved terminals to the hoodmould. The vestry windows are flat-headed on the ground storey and mostly segmental-headed above, all with cusped lights. The upper storey window in the north gable has a pointed arch and three traceried lights.

The south doorway is chamfered with a pointed arch, approached by six steps; at their foot are two iron shoe scrapers with fleurs-de-lys finials. Buttresses flank both sides and angles, except the north-east angle which has a large stair turret with its own spire. This turret has a shouldered-head doorway on its east side. At the apex of the north gable stands an octagonal, open-sided finial, possibly designed as a chimney. All external doorways have studded plank doors with ornate iron strap hinges.

Inside, the north and south arcades have pointed arches extending the full length of the church; there is no chancel arch. The nave, chancel, aisles and chapels have arch-braced roofs. A stone Gothic pulpit and reredos are features of the interior.

An organ with wooden Gothic casing was built in 1857 by H.P. Dicker of Exeter and now stands in the north chancel chapel. According to the Exeter Flying Post of 29 October 1857, it was originally positioned at the west end: 'the centre is occupied by a stained glass window. This has necessitated a division of the instrument; the swell and the pedal organs are at the south side, and the great organ at the north. On this latter side is the organists seat, the connecting actions of the swell and pedal organs passing under the platform, upon which he and the choristers sit'.

The chancel was raised and refurbished in 1910-11 by Nevinson and Newton of London, who installed the low stone chancel screen and wooden Gothic parclose screens. They also reseated the nave. Wooden Gothic choir stalls were added in 1925. A brass eagle lectern, given in 1906, stands in front of the chancel steps (now on the south side, but originally positioned centrally looking down the middle aisle). Stone Gothic memorial plaques commemorate Ambrose Brewin (died 1855) and his wife Caroline (died 1877). Coloured glass appears in the east, west and south windows; the east window was erected in 1893 to the memory of Frederick Owen Patch, with the others being given by Miss Dorothea Carew.

The site of the church was given by John Heathcoat, with half the £6,000 building cost being borne by his partner and son-in-law Ambrose Brewin and the other half by Mary Peard's charity; Heathcoat paid for the organ. G.A. Boyce, the Tiverton architect, served as clerk of works. According to the Exeter Flying Post of 31 January 1856, 'the design was from a similar edifice at Bath'. The church originally fronted Birchen Lane, which was subsequently improved and largely rebuilt as Church Street, with St Paul's Street and St Paul's Square being newly laid out to provide a suitable setting for the church. The St Paul's Street houses were built by the Brewins and given to the church as an endowment.