Church Of St John

Church of St John, Bridgetown, Totnes

Built in 1832 by Edward Seymour, eleventh Duke of Somerset, for his estate tenants as a chapel of ease to Berry Pomeroy church. The architect remains unknown, though John Reeves and J.W. Bentall have been suggested as possible designers. The building cost £7,000 and originally seated seven hundred with galleries on three sides.

The church is constructed from grey limestone, possibly from Ashburton, in a mix of coursed rubble and freestone, with slate roofs. It follows the Commissioners' type of Perpendicular Gothic style. The plan is irregular in orientation: the ritual east faces south. The building comprises a five-bay aisleless nave with a very shallow chancel and a projecting west tower containing the main entrance. The church sits tightly between terraced houses climbing east from Totnes Bridge, with only the tower rising above the surrounding roofs.

The tall, narrow west tower features angle buttresses dying back into the belfry stage. Its west face contains a four-centred doorway beneath a square label with traceried spandrels, and above this a very tall three-light window with two transoms and uncusped tracery. Each face of the belfry has an uncusped lancet, and an embattled parapet with crocketed angle pinnacles crowns the tower. The sides of the nave have five tall windows separated by buttresses; these window frames were replaced around 1980 with steel frames. The shallow chancel projection has its own embattled parapet, diagonal buttresses, and a five-light Perpendicular east window with a transom but no cusping. The roof was renewed around 2002.

An arson attack on 9 July 1976 gutted the church, destroying almost all interior fittings and the roof. Refurbishment followed in 1980 by architect Michael Ford with contractors Blight & Scoble, avoiding any attempt to reinstate original features. A broad steel-framed staircase and meeting rooms were installed at the western end, and an extra floor was inserted to create a large meeting hall above the worship space. The interior finish is relatively basic: old exposed rubble walls were painted, and new walls finished in painted plaster. The worship space is accessed through double glass doors from the west.

The only surviving original fitting is the stone reredos, a blind screen of six Perpendicular arches. All other furnishings date from the 1980 refurbishment: the altar, rails, prayer desk, lectern and upholstered seating are in plain pale oak. A geometric organ case with pierced panels is also present. The east window features vivid abstract coloured glazing by Peter Tysoe, though the top half is obscured by the inserted ceiling.

The church's early history is notable. Rev. James Shore was appointed curate, a radical preacher whose sermons attracted many dissenters. When a new vicar of Berry Pomeroy was appointed in 1841, Shore's licence was not renewed, leading to conflict with the Tractarian Bishop of Exeter, Henry Philpotts. The chapel was closed for five months in 1843, but seven hundred parishioners signed a petition. In 1844 it reopened as the first Independent Free Church in England, with Shore continuing his popular ministry until 1862. The church returned to Church of England in 1869 and was refurbished in conventional Anglican fashion with a full-width Gothic chancel screen including a pulpit—fittings that were extant in 1944. St John became part of the parish of Totnes in the early 1970s.