Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

Parish church on Fore Street in Culmstock. Built in the 15th century in more than one phase, with some sections possibly dating to the early 16th century. The building was renovated in 1879. Construction materials include local limestone rubble with larger neatly dressed quoins, Hamstone and Beerstone ashlar detail, and a slate roof.

Plan and Layout

The church comprises a nave with clerestorey (an unusual feature for Devon), a lower chancel, north and south aisles, a west tower with a semi-octagonal stair turret projecting from its south-east corner, and a south porch. A baptistry projects from the north aisle, and a 19th-century vestry stands on the north side of the chancel.

Exterior

The tall west tower rises in three stages with set-back buttresses and an embattled parapet topped with corner pinnacles, each surmounted by a wrought iron weather vane. The corner water spouts are carved as gargoyles. The Hamstone belfry windows are two lights with Perpendicular tracery. On the west side is an original doorway—a two-centred arch of volcanic stone with moulded surround, now containing 19th-century doors. Directly above is a tall four-light Beerstone window with Perpendicular tracery. Around the rest of the church, all windows display Perpendicular tracery; most are 19th-century replacements, though some are original. The clerestorey has three two-light windows on each side. The south aisle features an embattled parapet that continues around the porch, which interrupts a three three-light Hamstone window front. The porch has a low gabled front and a two-centred Hamstone outer arch with moulded surround. The remaining windows are Beerstone. On the south side of the chancel are two two-light windows with a narrow priests' door between, and at the east end a tall three-light window. The 19th-century lean-to vestry has square-headed windows in Perpendicular style. The south aisle contains three-light windows, and a gabled baptistry projecting opposite the porch features two-light windows.

Interior

The porch roof is a vaulted stone structure with an ornate carved boss probably dating to the late 15th or early 16th century, though some suspicion exists that the porch itself may be a 19th-century replacement. The south door is a two-centred arch with moulded surround containing a 19th-century panelled door. The nave roof is a plastered vault possibly as early as the 18th century. Both aisles have similar low-pitch lean-to roofs of moulded intersecting beams with carved bosses. The chancel has a 19th-century wagon roof with boarded back and carved bosses. The tower contains a late 15th or early 16th-century ringing floor carried on moulded intersecting beams. The baptistry has a 19th-century roof. The tower arch is tall and plain.

Each side of the nave has a four-bay arcade with similar moulded piers (Pevsner type A) with moulded caps to the shafts only. However, the north aisle is built of Beerstone whereas the southern one is Hamstone. A hagioscope connects the east end of the south side to the chancel. A Hamstone piscina stands in the south aisle. Aisles and nave have stone flag floors, while the chancel and baptistry have floors of patterned 19th-century encaustic tiles.

The 19th-century Beerstone reredos is carved in Perpendicular Gothic style as a blind arcade, with the centre panel more ornate. A trefoil-headed piscina is in the south wall. The sanctuary contains a 19th-century altar table and two 17th-century chip-carved oak chairs. A 19th-century oak altar rail stands on wrought iron twisted standards, accompanied by 19th-century oak stalls and pulpit in Gothic style, a 19th-century oak eagle lectern, and 19th-century pine benches with ends carved as blind tracery. A 20th-century tower screen is also present. At the time of survey, the font had been removed for restoration. No monuments of more than local interest are recorded. A painted board above the tower arch displays Georgian arms. A plaque on the rear of the north aisle records the "enlarging" of the church by an additional 250 sittings in 1825. Some painted 19th-century glass is present in the windows.

The church plays an important role in the townscape of Culmstock and this part of the Culm valley.