Church Of St Mary Magdalene

Church of St Mary Magdalene

This parish church combines 12th-century fabric in the nave with significant extensions made during the 13th century, when the chancel and north tower were added. An Early 14th-century south transept was constructed, and in the 16th century the nave was heightened and reroofed with a new north aisle, possibly replacing an earlier north transept in what may originally have been a cruciform plan. The south porch and vestry were probably also added during the 16th century. The church was restored and almost entirely refenestrated in 1860 by R D Gould.

The exterior is constructed of Morte slates with ashlar dressings, and has slate roofs with coped gable ends to the nave and chancel, topped with apex crosses. A rubble and ashlar gabletted stack rises from the vestry. The north tower comprises two stages with an embattled parapet. Bell openings with louvres are positioned on all four faces: two lights to the north and east (the eastern opening also having a pointed-arched hoodmould), and single lights to the west and south. A pointed north doorway has rough voussoirs and a ventilation slit above, with a buttress with offsets to the west wall. The north aisle has two 2-light windows and a single trefoil-headed 2-light window at its eastern end. A 3-light pointed-arched east window features human head corbels. Two cavetto-moulded lancet windows light the north wall of the chancel. A shoulder-headed priests' door on the south side is flanked by two trefoil-headed 2-light windows. The south transept contains a single trefoil-headed light on the east and a 2-light window on the south side with label stops and short engaged columns with capitals and floriated corbels to the inner face. A 4-light window with renewed tracery, with two lights on each side splaying outwards from the angle between the transept and nave, opens to the west. Two single-light windows occupy each side of the nave, with a 3-light west window completing the fenestration. The south porch doorway has a plain-moulded segmental arch with latticed framing and ledging, and a 19th-century inner plank door set in an unmoulded round-arched opening. The porch has a barrel roof with moulded wooden spine, supported on carved and canellated wooden wall plates.

The interior preserves significant medieval and later features. A pointed-arched doorway with rounded inner arch provides access to the tower, which contains two blocked square-headed splayed windows on its east side. The nave has an unceiled waggon roof with moulded spine. A clerestory window above the north aisle arcade comprises three lights with ferramental. The north aisle and south transept have ceiled waggon roofs with carved bosses at the intersections of the ribs. The north transept has a 2-bay arcade of plain chamfered four-centred arches supported on a single octagonal pier. The south transept arcade comprises 1½ bays with four-centred arches on an octagonal pier with moulded capital; the larger bay features blind trefoiled panelling to the intrados and a wooden moulded lintel above, while the smaller bay is created by a diagonal vaulted connection between the transept and nave wall, possibly forming a hagioscope to the south transept. A plain moulded pointed chancel arch frames a striking mosaic by Selwyn Image dating to 1903, depicting ascending angels flanking a representation of the Lamb and Cross in a central medallion. A 19th-century piscina adorns the north wall of the chancel, and a stone-carved reredos with pointed-arched niches on each side features cusped-headed inner arches supported on colonettes. A 19th-century wooden altar table has frontals embroidered to Image's designs. A wineglass stone pulpit features double cusped-headed panels to each facet with ball-flower ornamentation between and fleurons above and below. The nave contains a fine set of 17 pairs of 18th-century richly carved bench-ends and benches with moulded rails. Most of the stained glass is by Beer of Exeter. An octagonal bowl font on a shaft with lipped capital and square base completes the interior furnishings.

Monuments include a tomb-chest in the south transept, probably of William de Tracey dating to the Early 14th century, with an incised figure of a priest holding a chalice on its lid. The south side displays 7 bays of blended arches with Decorated-style tracery and floriated spandrels, with a carved panel of a crucifixion at its west end. The north side has, from left to right, 6 smaller cusped-headed arches with 3 shields above, followed by 2 arches similar to those on the south side, then 2 arches containing figures in low relief in the niches. A wall monument with original painted decoration to Mary and Thomas Newel (Early 18th century) occupies the north wall at the upper end of the nave, featuring an oval medallion with a large scallop above, putti within swags, and a cherub bust below on small consoles. The west wall of the south transept bears a wall monument by Harry Hems of Exeter to Mary Heddon (died 1889), with outer and inner colonnettes flanking a cartouche of three female figures. A 19th-century marble wall monument by R Scamp of Ilfracombe adorns the south wall of the transept.