Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

An Anglican parish church formerly in the dependency of Buckfast Abbey, located in Churchstow village centre. The building dates to the 14th and 15th centuries, constructed in coursed slate-stone with granite dressings and a slate roof.

The church comprises a west tower, nave continuous to chancel, north transept, south aisle, and chantry chapel extending through to the east wall of the chancel. A two-storey porch stands to the west of the south aisle.

The tower rises in three stages, each slightly inset to a weathered string course, with full-height set-back buttresses featuring offsets. A central octagonal stair turret on the south face rises to a battlement above the battlemented parapet, which sits on continuous corbelling. The west front features a near-round arch containing a 19th-century door beneath a three-light 15th-century window set within two rows of voussoirs and a relieving arch with drip course. The bell chamber has small two-light traceried windows, with a square-headed light above the ridge on the east face and a round-headed light to the top stage, positioned left of the stair turret.

The aisle west end contains a three-light window within a round arch, adjacent to where the porch stands. The porch itself has diagonal buttresses with two offsets, a two-light 16th-century window, and a four-centred Tudor doorway beneath a heavy moulded square drip course. The plinth displays two panels with quatrefoils or rosettes. The interior features a slate floor, stone benches, a flat ceiling, and an inner door with a four-centred head in simple moulding.

The south aisle and chapel feature five three-light windows with rounded heads and segmental drips terminating in horizontal stops, divided by four buttresses with two offsets and a corner buttress. The last bay includes a priest's door with a four-centred head. High coped verges crown the two east gables, each topped with a terminal cross and containing a three-light 19th-century Perpendicular window. Below these windows runs a course of large squared granite blocks set flush and cut well down into the churchyard. On the return stands a 19th-century vestry with a two-light square-headed window featuring a stopped drip; the outer gable contains a square stack.

The north side of the chancel has a two-light 15th-century window followed by a squint window with its own flat-pitched covering. The north transept contains a small early 14th-century light in the east wall and a three-light 15th-century window in the north wall, without quoins or dripstone. The west wall is plain but features a high plinth reaching approximately two metres, topped with a high coped verge.

The nave has a three-light proto-Perpendicular window and three buttresses with two offsets and plinth in a plain wall.

Interior

The tower has a heavy double-chamfer arch on simple responds. The nave floor is slate, with plain plastered and scribed north wall. A four-bay granite arcade runs the length of the nave with standard four-hollow mouldings and four shafts to heavy capitals. A barrel roof divided into four by twelve compartments carries moulded and stopped ribs and bosses, continuing into the chancel in four by seven compartments. There is no chancel arch; the chancel is raised by one step and has a slate floor, with a 20th-century altar and reredos. The walls are plastered as in the nave. A north door provides access to the vestry.

The south aisle features a similar four by twelve compartment barrel ceiling, continuing through to the chantry chapel as a four by seven compartment ceiling. The deep, narrow north transept has a slate floor and plain walls with access for a rood stair. The squint has a four by four compartment barrel ceiling.

Fittings and Monuments

The church contains a good 19th-century pulpit on a flared base, incorporating some 15th-century panels. Standard pews throughout, with possibly late 18th or 19th-century return ends to choir stalls facing the nave, which may be medieval. The font has a square bowl with some arcading, possibly 12th-century, set on a Victorian base. A 19th-century screen spans the tower arch.

Among the monuments is a small detached panel with coat of arms in a good frame near the pulpit, commemorating John Petters Esquire, Customs Officer of Devon, who in 1715 gave twenty shillings yearly. Good slate floor slabs are present throughout, including a variegated marble one in the south chantry chapel inscribed to Samuel Ryder, Armiger (died 1727, aged 35) and Martyn Ryder (died 1723, aged 80). An east window to Edward and Ann Harding dates to 1970 and is signed.

This is a good church with little 19th-century modification and a fine, upstanding tower visible from many surrounding parishes. The untraceried windows are characteristic of many in Devon and Cornwall, arising from the use of the intractable granite for construction.