Parish Church Of Holy Trinity

ILFRACOMBE

SS5147 CHURCH ROAD 853-1/6/31 Parish Church of Holy Trinity 15/06/51

GV I

Anglican parish church. Transeptal tower and other masonry C13; enlarged c1321 by order of Bishop Stapledon (lengthening of the nave and addition of aisles); aisles widened C15; N chancel aisle added C15; restoration by John Hayward, 1861-4. Vestry, 1894 by Henry Wilson. MATERIALS: mostly random rubble slate walls, some rendered; limestone dressings; Welsh slate roof. PLAN: nave with aisles of 4 bays; chancel of 4; N and S chancel aisles; N transeptal tower (now partially internal due to widening of N aisle); SE vestries. EXTERIOR: windows entirely renewed by Hayward, mostly 4-light in conventional Perpendicular style. One or two dressed features survive from before this time including a small blocked window set low at W end of S aisle. Sundial dated 1788 over porch doorway. Plaque dated 1864 commemorates rebuilding of S wall. Storeyed vestries set transeptally with polygonal stair turret; 2-light window to each floor, that to 1st under moulded pointed arch. The strangely detailed doorway arch, the rainwater hopper and the weather vane on the small spire that surmounts the turret are free Arts and Crafts in style (cf the lych gate to S also by Wilson). INTERIOR: fully described in Pevsner and Cherry. Special attention may be drawn to the fine set of wagon roofs, substantially renewed and adapted over the chancel by Fellowes Prynne in 1899. Nave roof rests on stone corbels representing mythical beasts that may be older than the timber roof. The Victorian glass (all attributed in Pevsner and Cherry) form an extremely interesting and varied collection. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N and Cherry B: Devon: 2nd ed.: London: 1989-: 501).

Listing NGR: SS5140747304