Church Of St Brannock

Church of St Brannock

This is a parish church in Braunton, built on a cruciform plan. The chancel retains 13th century fabric, including three lancets on its north wall and a 14th century doorway set beneath the middle lancet. The north transept features an unmoulded pointed arch, whilst the south transeptal tower has a similar but much deeper arch. Two lancets at the east end of the nave flank a double-chamfered chancel arch and may indicate the former presence of aisles, though a 15th century rebuild removed them to create an impressively wide buttressed nave with a single waggon roof. A chancel chapel was also added in the 15th century. Most of the fenestration dates to the 19th century, and the south, north and west porches were probably rebuilt in the 19th century as well. The chancel was restored in 1887.

The walls are constructed of rubble, mostly uncoursed, though the south wall of the south chancel chapel contains some roughly squared masonry, and dressed stone quoins flank the chancel. Slate roofs are finished with coped ashlar gables and stone crosses at their apexes.

The tower is of two stages and features a broach spire with four gabled two-light lucarnes between the broaches. The tower has angle buttresses and large central buttresses, all with offsets. The bottom stage contains single narrow slit openings in the north and west walls. To the south is a square-headed window with mouchette tracery and a head mould with returned ends above a buttress, with a hollow-chamfered lancet to its right. A plain pointed arch opening stands above in the second stage. The lead-clad broach spire sits atop this structure. A stair turret occupies the north-east angle of the tower, with three slit openings on its east side.

The nave displays symmetrical window openings comprising single three-light Perpendicular style windows, all partially recut, on each side of the north and south porches. Both porches have plain pointed arches and doorways with plain chamfers; the base of the jambs on the south doorway has been recut. An ancient pointed arch plank door with square framing and ledging stands to the south, and an old pointed arch door to the north. To the right of the south porch entrance is a reset wall tablet with a weathered inscription and stopped hood mould. Large external buttresses with offsets project towards the west end, and smaller ashlar buttresses are bonded into the corners.

The west porch has an unmoulded pointed arch and a 19th century ceiled waggon roof. Its doorway is double chamfered with a plain hood mould and is flanked by double-leaved ancient doors. A large 19th century west window in Perpendicular style has a corbelled hood mould. A wooden charity board adorns the north wall, and stocks used as a bench stand on the south wall.

Between the north transept and north porch is a low slated lean-to roof covering an outshut, with external stone steps in front leading to an organ gallery door in the transept's west wall. The north wall of this structure has a two-light 19th century window, and to the east is a reset 13th century pointed arch window with Y-bars. The vestry has a 19th century cusped two-light window to the north and a small square window above a two-light window with shouldered jambs to the east.

The chancel window displays elaborate Perpendicular style tracery with a corbelled hood mould; the tracery has been recut but the architrave remains mostly intact. The slightly smaller chancel chapel east window has recut long and short jambs and mouchette tracery. Its hood mould has stopped ends but also weathered label stops outside these, indicating a formerly larger opening extending up to an empty niche near the gable apex. Two rainwater heads at the east end are dated 1872.

The chancel chapel to the south has a two-light Decorated style window and single-light Decorated style openings on each side of a four-centred arch doorway with hollow chamfer. Floriated stops ornament the hood moulds, and an ancient plank door closes the opening.

The interior features an unaisled nave spanned by a massive unceiled waggon roof with ornately carved bosses at the intersections of ribs and longitudinal members. The south chancel chapel has a ceiled waggon roof, and the chancel has a plank ceiled waggon roof with a similar arrangement of bosses; the chancel also features angel busts spaced along the wall plates. A two-bay arcade contains 'B'-type Pevsner piers with lipped capitals.

Fine 17th century turned communion rails and an altar table remain in place. The reredos is a panelled structure resembling a 17th century chimneypiece, dated 1653, with five angel busts in the central projecting bay. The chancel screen has four-light sections with Perpendicular tracery, ogee-arched to the centre, with original headrail to the rear. The south chancel chapel has 20th century dado panelling.

A small pointed-head piscina sits near the base of the east wall of the tower. An Anglo-Saxon (possibly) burial stone forms the lintel of a slit window. The north transept contains carved panelling to the organ gallery dated 1619. The lectern reuses a portion of one of the turned pedestals from the existing 17th century panelled pulpit, which now has its tester as a base.

The font, positioned near the north door, has a square bowl on a squat column, probably dating to the late 13th or early 14th century, though the base of the column and corner colonettes are replacements. The bowl is carved with human heads at each corner and an ox and human face on the east and north sides, enriched with Decorated style traceried surround.

The nave contains three brass Flemish chandeliers. An excellent complete set of twenty-three pairs of 16th century bench ends, variously carved and complete with benches and moulded rails, occupies the nave. A single 16th century bench end stands in the south chancel chapel, with a pew front carved in 1887 but reusing 17th century panelling. Two further bench ends with new pews occupy the tower chapel. An Armada Box in the south chancel chapel features male and female figures in Portuguese costume from around 1560, marked with initials and inscription. A 16th century chest stands in the nave.

Wall monuments line the interior. On the south chancel chapel wall is a hinged brass palimpsest reinstated in 1908, originally from the chapel floor. The nave's south wall contains an early classical style monument to Peter Shepherd of Fulbrook and his son (died 1558 and 1591), and a monument to Nicholas Hooper Wood in similar classical Ionic style. A large late 17th century monument to Robert Incledon (died 1558) and other family members features a large entablature with semi-circular arched head and angel figures over trophies, flanked by classical colonettes supported on cherub heads. The principal tablet beneath features a skull with painted decoration. A small monument to Peter Calverley, Chirurgeon (died 1799), displays an oval medallion with fern surround, skull and armorial bearings above, and cherubs below. An early 19th century marble tablet above the South Doorway commemorates the Webber Family (1807–1822) with fluted pilasters flanking the inscription and a classical urn above. A marble monument to Frances Baker (née Webber; died 1782) has a scrolled surround to the carved tablet with a tapering crown surmounted by classical urns. A cluster of three cherub heads at the base flanks urns and brackets. At the extreme west end of the south wall, a monument consists of panels containing shields flanked by three superimposed orders of fluted Ionic columns to the lower two tiers, with heads in the capitals of the upper tier and a pilastered single tier above.

The north wall contains a marble tablet with anthemion acroteria above the inscription to Henry Webber (1823 and 1833). To the left of the organ gallery, Doric columns flank a 1758 tablet with a classical urn over. A reset stone wall tablet dated 1622 commemorates Margaret Allyn (died 1709) to the right of the north door, with cherub heads over the tablet and a wreathed surround to a skull below. Above the north door, a wall tablet honours a husband and wife (died 1839 and 1870), with pilasters to each side of the marble tablet and a shield over. To the left of the north door, a marble monument by T Jewell of Barnstaple to the Hale family (circa 1737) features Doric pilasters and a classical urn.

One stained glass lancet at the east chancel end is by Percy Bacon, described as "Artist of most of the stained glass in this Church". The east window of the south chancel chapel is by W F Dixon (Pinx, 18 University Street, London).