Church Of St Matthew

ILFRACOMBE

SS44NE LEE 853-1/1/147 Church of St Matthew 15/06/51

GV II

Anglican church. 1860, by John Hayward, incorporating some of the fabric of a chapel of ease of 1833. Narrow coursed slate; Welsh slate roofs. PLAN: nave with west porch and bellcote, low but deep chancel. Very small, built into the hillside. EXTERIOR: C13 style. 2-bay nave with 2-light plate tracery windows and diagonal buttresses. West end with roundel containing sunk quatrefoil; porch flanked by 2-light windows. North side with square-headed 2-light windows. INTERIOR: all over stencilling decorative scheme (fleur-de-lis to chancel, framed roundels to nave). Roofs: nave with wide boarded wagon, chancel has side purlins and wind braces. Tiled floors. 3-bay stone reredos with trefoil-headed niches. Seating of 1913. In addition to the C19 decoration, the interior is notable for a large collection of re-used early-C17 woodwork that must have been brought to the church from a large house, and now forms bench and choir stall and gallery frontals, pulpit, dado, and reading desk etc. Some heraldic and figure work (a shield containing 3 Saracens' daggers).

Listing NGR: SS4857846326