Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a late 15th-century church, originally the Benedictine Priory Church of St Mary. The conventual buildings were located to the north. A rebuilding agreement was reached in 1432 between Prior Stone and Mayor John Burhed, and the church was completed between 1432 and 1459, with designs by master mason Roger Crowden, who may have been responsible for the entire project. The church comprises a four-bay nave with aisles, a two-bay chancel, and a three-stage west tower. An outer north aisle was added around 1824 and remodelled around 1869. The church is built in the Perpendicular style with a Welsh slate roof, random Devonian limestone rubble, and red sandstone dressings, with the tower constructed entirely of red sandstone from Stoke Gabriel. The tower and chancel have set-back buttresses, while the nave and porch have diagonal buttresses. Crenellated aisles and chancel are clad in white limestone and feature gargoyles and pinnacles. The west tower's design draws inspiration from towers at Ashburton and Tavistock, alongside those at Buckland Brewer and Callington (Cornwall). The south front of the tower is symmetrical, with buttresses framing a central stair turret, which contains a bearded, mitred head inscribed “I made this tore,” possibly referring to Bishop Lacey, whose device, a knot, also appears on the interior screen. The tower is topped with a crenellated parapet and polygonal pinnacles. The aisles feature four-light windows with panel tracery, while the east window is a six-light design by Sir Gilbert Scott. A gabled south porch includes battlements and pinnacles, with richly decorated arched doorways and a C16 inner door in an Early Renaissance style. The porch has a ribbed and bossed ceiling. Inside, the nave and chancel have wagon roofs with bosses. A fine stone screen partitions the chancel chapels from the nave, featuring eight narrow, two-light panels, plus two for the nave doors, and three broader panels with depressed ogee arches, the middle ones serving as entrances. A coved frieze and thin cornice complete the screen. The chancel octagonal font has quatrefoil panels. A stone pulpit with two tiers of cusped arches is also present. A monument to Walter Smith (died 1555) is located in the south chancel aisle.