Parish Church Of St Mary The Virgin

Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin, Pilton

This is a large parish church, formerly part of a Benedictine Priory. The priory was founded between 925 and 940 as a cell of Malmesbury Abbey and was dissolved in 1533, when the church was acquired by the Chichester family of Raleigh. The present church is partly 13th century (dedicated in 1259) and partly 15th century, with some conservative repair and rebuilding from the 17th century. It is built of local purple, grey and brown slatestone with sandstone dressings and has slate roofs.

The church consists of a nave, chancel, a three-bay Early English north aisle arcade (with aisle roof said to date from 1639), a four-bay Perpendicular south aisle and two-bay south-east chapel, a large Early English north-east tower, and a south-east porch. The tower and south aisle date from the Priory period. The tower was rebuilt by Robert Nutting in 1696 following Civil War damage, as recorded by an inscription on the porch, with further rebuilding carried out between 1845 and 1850. Most of the window tracery has been renewed.

Externally, the south-east chancel chapel extends flush with the chancel, both having four-light east windows with Y-tracery. The south side features four grand four-light windows with deeply-moulded architraves and Perpendicular-style tracery. A small moulded doorway into the south-east chapel has an old dripstone and carved dripstone terminals, with a Berry sundial over the door dated 1780. A tall castellated porch at the first bay from the west has a moulded outer doorway with 19th-century carved dripstone terminals and a two-light square-headed Perpendicular window on its east return. The inner doorway is moulded with 16th-century dripstone terminals. A stone structure on the outer doorway appears to be a stoup, though the church guide describes it as a Benitier for leaving food in. The porch has a 19th-century timber roof and an inscription recording the rebuilding of the tower.

The west end of the south aisle has a four-light window with Y-tracery. The west window of the nave has a probably original four-light Decorated window with reticulated tracery, similar to the three-light west window of the north aisle. The north aisle features three three-light high-set Perpendicular windows, set above the roofline of former priory buildings, with cusped lights and square-headed embrasures. A 19th-century north doorway opens into the churchyard towards the west end.

The massive north-east tower is two-stage with evidence of a former octagonal stage or spire, featuring an embattled parapet, corner pinnacles and an embattled three-sided stair turret with a stone belcote and crocketed spire. The tower has three-light louvred belfry windows and evidence of former buildings attached on its east and north sides. The east side has a large blocked Early English arch, while the north wall has a probably secondary doorway with a shouldered arch.

Internally, the walls are plastered. The nave, chancel chapel and aisles have boarded waggon roofs with moulded ribs and carved bosses at the intersections. The south aisle roof has been augmented with later braced crested tie beams. The north aisle roof, if dating from the 17th century, represents an important late example of a roof type that dates from at least the 14th century in Devon churches. The chancel roof is an undecorated waggon, presumably intended to take plaster, of unknown date. One stone-vaulted 13th-century bay leads into the tower from the chancel. The plain chancel arch dates from the 19th or 20th century.

The north arcade is plain and massive, with chamfered piers bearing some diagonal stops and carved corbels. The 15th-century south arcade extends from the division between the chancel and south-east chancel chapel, with piers featuring alternating shafts and hollow chamfers, carved foliage capitals and moulded arches. A steep 13th-century arch opens into the tower from the east end of the north aisle, somewhat obscured by the organ. A ten-bay crested roof screen shows evidence of reconstruction in parts. The coving is missing, but Flamboyant tracery is fixed in the spandrels, and wainscot painting has been revealed, with other sections likely hidden under existing brown paint.

A fine 16th-century parclose opens into the south-east chapel and is inscribed with an R for Raleigh, dating it after 1533. The parclose features good carving and a mixture of Gothic and Renaissance detail. A Perpendicular stone pulpit on a stem has panels decorated with blind arcading and traces of ancient colour. The pulpit has a Jacobean sounding board and an unusual iron hand projecting from the side for an hourglass.

The font has a plain octagonal Ham Hill bowl on a stem and a fine font cover, thought to have been assembled in Elizabethan times, with concave sides decorated with crockets and a pinnacle. The font stands below a canopied tester made up of fragments of Gothic and Renaissance carving, including linenfold, figure panels, applied barleysugar ribs and Gothic fretwork. A late 16th-century communion table, restored in 1985, has pull-out leaves. A late 16th-century communion rail features turned balusters, a bookrest on top, and long pendants in each bay supporting arches with carved leaves in the spandrels.

The chancel contains a 14th-century cinquefoil-headed piscina on the south wall. An 1880s crested sandstone reredos with blind Gothic arcading was designed as an ensemble with the east window and incorporates a wall plaque commemorating Reverend William Gradoch Hall, who died in 1889, carved by Bryant and Son of Barnstaple. The plaque is positioned above a very narrow moulded doorway that formerly led to an east end chapel with an adjacent chamber inhabited by a recluse in 1329. A 1707 Royal Arms painted on boards is fixed to the west end of the north wall. The nave has late 19th-century seating, and the choir stalls are late 19th or 20th century with traceried panels.

The monuments are of considerable importance. At the west end of the south-east chapel stands a very fine standing sandstone wall monument to Sir John Chichester, died 1569, with columns and strapwork cartouches. On the north wall of the chancel is a fine monument with original colour to Sir Robert Chichester, died 1627, featuring two rows of kneeling figures, including children, facing a double prie-dieu. The south aisle contains a large wall monument to Christopher Lethbridge, died 1713, with elaborate achievement and putto heads. Numerous white marble wall plaques are also present.

The stained glass includes the east window of the chancel and the south-east chapel windows by F Drake and Sons of Exeter, and two late windows in the south aisle by Heaton, Butler and Bayne. The church is important for its good fittings and fine monuments.