Church Of All Saints

The Church of All Saints is a parish church of exceptional architectural importance. Cresswell and Pevsner date the building to circa 1360–1370, based on the will of William Slighe (died 1379), in which he expresses a wish to be buried in the aisle he had recently built ("in elaquam ego ibidem de novo construxi"). However, it has been argued that this reference relates only to refurbishing, and the building may be later (Slader). The church underwent restoration and re-roofing in 1854 by David Mackintosh, with some refurbishing and repair in the 1890s. It is constructed of dressed red breccia brought to course, with some blocks of Beerstone and Beerstone dressings. The tower is of breccia ashlar, while the return walls of the porch and the east end of the south aisle are stone rubble.

Plan and Character

The church comprises a nave, chancel, west tower, seven-bay north and south aisles (with one bay extending to the chancel), a south-west porch, and a north-east vestry added in 1866. It is Perpendicular in style and of unusually grand character; the church could be one build.

Exterior

The church is large and impressive, with embattled aisles and polygonal turrets (comparable to those at Kenn). Most of the window tracery is 19th century, in an early Perpendicular character. The chancel has diagonal buttresses with set-offs, a six-light east window with 19th-century tracery, king mullion, and carved label stops. The north and south sides have four-light 19th-century Perpendicular windows. A chamfered two-centred arched priest's doorway is located on the south side. The 1866 north-east vestry features a parapet, a stack with stone shaft, a north door, and a two-light east window.

The south side of the church, facing the road, is notably the show front, with carved detail not used on the north side. It has Beerstone coping to the battlementing, a carved cornice moulding, and set-back buttresses at the south-east and south-west corners. Buttresses to each bay with set-offs are crowned with tall pinnacles and grotesques, and there are four-light Perpendicular windows with 19th-century tracery. A projecting five-sided embattled stair turret divides the eastern bays, decorated with a carved cornice and grotesques. The east wall has been rebuilt in reconstituted stone with a three-light 19th-century Perpendicular east window and a three-light 19th-century Perpendicular west window.

The grand embattled two-storey porch is located in the first headed bay from the west, with set-back buttresses. The battlementing has statue niches, and the porch is decorated with gargoyles. The off-centre square-headed outer doorway is richly carved with carved spandrels and large projecting medieval carved label stops. Above the doorway, an unusual large carved canopy niche is flanked by one-light cusped windows with a common hoodmould and label stops. A holy water stoup is located to the left of the doorway on the exterior wall.

The north side is also embattled (the battlementing replaced with reconstituted stone) but plainer, with seven four-light 19th-century Perpendicular windows divided by buttresses with set-offs. A three-sided battlemented north-west stair turret provides access from the church interior. There is a blocked window at the west end with a later blocked doorway.

The imposing three-stage battlemented tower has set-back buttresses and an internal north-west stair turret. Corner pinnacles feature canopied niches containing presumably 15th-century sculptured figures—a rare survival. The west face has a moulded west doorway with cushion stops and a hoodmould, a four-light 19th-century Perpendicular west window, and a canopied statue niche with an ogee arch. There is a similar statue niche on the south face, which also has a one-light cusped bellringer's window and a clock in a stone frame. Grand three-light traceried belfry windows with transoms show masonry much renewed in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Interior

The porch, originally vaulted, now has a flat roof. It features a richly carved inner doorway with large projecting carved label stops and a remodelled canopied statue niche above. The church interior is lofty with plastered walls and no chancel arch. The tower arch has a panelled soffit with 19th-century stencilling above. Seven-bay Perpendicular Beerstone arcades have piers with corner shafts, boldly carved foliage capitals, and moulded arches. Shafted rear arches serve the windows, and there is a moulded doorway with cushion stops leading to the room over the porch. The nave and chancel have an open wagon roof, probably from 1865, while the lean-to aisle roof of 1854 was designed by David Mackintosh.

The nave is dominated by an impressive eleven-bay rood screen. The heraldry suggests a date during Peter Courtenay's bishopric (1478–1486) (Bond and Camm). The coving and rood loft parapet were replaced by Herbert Read under the direction of Bligh Bond in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, reinstating the medieval proportions of the screen, quite unlike the usual survivals. Medieval wainscot paintings of saints survive, along with some ancient colour on the carving and apostles carved in niches on the centre doorframe (comparable to North Bovey). An early 20th-century silver rood by Henry Wilson, formerly on the High Altar at Exeter Cathedral, is also present. Four-bay parclose screens with square-headed four-light openings have heart-shaped crocketted cresting.

The chancel has probably 19th-century sedilia under a simple arch, a two-tier probably medieval aumbry, and a trefoil-headed hagioscope into the north chancel chapel. A massive carved timber triptych reredos was erected in 1843, carved "under the direction of Mr Kempe" (TEDAS), with some carving by Sebastian Zwinke of Oberammergau. The altar rail of 1907 was designed by Bligh Bond. Choir stalls with poppyhead ends date to 1865. A monumental relief of the raising of Lazarus by Stevens is on the north wall. The north parclose door is made up of carved late 15th- or early 16th-century bench ends.

The nave has an interesting 15th-century timber drum pulpit on a wineglass stem, richly carved and largely reconstructed by Herbert Read to the designs of Bligh Bond after Baring-Gould found it in pieces. An octagonal carved font dates to 1844. A set of 1865 square-headed bench ends with quatrefoil decoration is also present. The north chancel chapel was formerly the family pew of Oxton Manor House and retains some good, probably late 17th-century dado panelling with strapwork and the remains of a piscina.

Monuments

Numerous ledger stones are used as floor slabs. A large early 17th-century wall monument to Dulcabella Hodges (died 1628) in the north chancel chapel features a seated figure with her head resting on one hand and a weeper. An inscription tablet with Corinthian columns and a cornice commemorates Sir Nicholas Martyn (died 1653) on the south wall of the chapel, which also has a three-bay early 19th-century monument on the east wall to members of the Swete family and a white marble wall tablet with an urn to John Swete (died 1831), signed J. Kendall, Exeter. Numerous early 19th-century wall tablets are in the nave. A mosaic of the Good Shepherd on the north wall commemorates Frederick Marshall, churchwarden 1914–1920.

Stained Glass

The east window is said by Pevsner to be by Clayton and Bell. North and south chancel windows are by Drake of Exeter, with a memorial date of 1891. A south aisle window has quarry glass, and head tracery glass in the north aisle is by Beer (1865). Grisaille glass in the east window by the north chancel chapel is probably also by Beer. The west window was "painted by Bannstyre [sic] of Edinburgh" (TEDAS). Some fragments of medieval glass survive in the north aisle windows.

This is an outstanding church, both externally and for its fittings.