Church Of St Mary And St Martin

Church of St Mary and St Martin

This is a parish church of considerable historical importance, with origins dating back to at least 1225, though the building was probably substantially rebuilt before a dedication in 1259. The church stands on the east side of Fore Street in Chudleigh.

The present structure comprises a nave, north transept and chancel that are probably 14th century in origin, with an Early English tower that may date from around 1259. The south aisle was funded by bequest in 1544 but remained unfinished until 1582. The building is constructed of grey limestone rubble masonry with red sandstone used in the tower and for 13th and 14th century dressings; other dressings are granite and freestone. The roofs are slate.

The church underwent major restorations in 1849, when architect David Machintosh oversaw work including the addition of a south-east vestry, replacement of window tracery, and general reseating and refurbishment with the rebuilding of an earlier west gallery. In 1869, Henry Woodyer carried out a further significant restoration involving the replacement of roofs and the straightening of the south aisle arcade. In the late 20th century, a glass screen was inserted below the west gallery to create a west end social area.

Externally, the chancel features set-back buttresses, a rebuilt gable and a 5-light 19th-century Decorated-style window designed by Mackintosh; it retains medieval Decorated 2-light windows to north and south, with a blocked doorway on the north side. The north transept has angle buttresses and Decorated windows of 3, 4 and 4 lights with hoodmoulds. The nave displays five 19th-century 3-light Perpendicular windows with hoodmoulds and 19th-century buttresses between them. The distinctive battlemented south aisle extends for 7 bays with 19th-century buttresses and diagonal buttresses at the east and west ends; it retains the remains of a rood stair turret with a conical roof. A blocked shallow-moulded doorway occupies the westernmost bay, with an early 19th-century window inserted within it. Two bays from the west stands a shallow-moulded granite Tudor-arched 19th-century doorway. The aisle windows are unusual uncusped granite 3-light windows, possibly post-Reformation in date. The south-east vestry of 1849 is embattled with a diagonal buttress, shouldered doorway and single light window to the south; it has a projecting east stack with stone shaft.

The tower is an impressive 3-stage Early English structure with clasping buttresses and battlements carried on a corbel table without pinnacles. Its west face features a 19th-century Early English doorway with engaged shafts and a 19th-century 2-leaf door with ornamental strap hinges, along with two lancet windows, one above the other. The east face displays a paired lancet at belfry stage.

The interior features plastered walls and a timber chancel arch of Woodyer's design. The tower arch is segmental and plastered. Woodyer's roofs throughout include: the nave with arched braces and a collar purlin; the crossing with a timber vault springing from brattished corbels; and the chancel with an unceiled wagon roof and a narrow ceilure of pierced quatrefoils. The south aisle roof represents Woodyer's solution to major structural problems, a lighter version of the nave roof strengthened at two points by transverse moulded stone strainers with ring posts and timber struts. The 7-bay arcade comprises granite monolith piers of 4 hollows and 4 shafts with conventional Perpendicular moulded capitals, supporting shallow-moulded 4-centred arches; the chancel bay arch is semicircular. An early 19th-century west gallery stands on iron columns with a timber frontal featuring blind arcading; the gallery was glazed in the late 20th century.

The five-bay late Perpendicular rood screen (Pevsner 'B' type) retains a 19th-century frieze and cresting, though the original coving no longer exists. It displays paintings of alternate apostles with sentences of the Creed alongside prophets with scrolls. A 3-bay parclose with square-headed traceried fenestration features vine-carved cornice and heavy cresting. A hagioscope opens between the chancel and east end of the aisle. A modern plasterboard partition closes the east end of the south aisle.

The 19th-century chancel fittings include a good stone reredos with tiling, altar rails and choir stalls which re-use medieval bench ends and carved frontals. The nave contains a stone drum pulpit dated 1897, corbelled out from a flight of stone steps with traceried panels and a brattished cornice, and a 19th-century timber eagle lectern. The font is unusual, comprising a large polished 19th-century granite bowl; the Purbeck stem with cable moulding may be 13th century. Bench ends are of late 15th and early 16th-century date, showing two tiers of tracery, alongside early 19th-century panelled benches, some retaining surviving doors. The north transept contains an ogee-headed piscina.

Monuments include a notable freestone chest of Sir Pierce Courtenay (died 1607) in the chancel, featuring kneeling figures facing one another across a prayer desk, flanked by fluted columns with entablature and pediment; some colour survives, possibly ancient. Numerous 17th-century ledger stones serve as floor slabs, with many 18th and 19th-century wall monuments.

The church contains an important set of 19th-century stained glass. The two east windows date from the 1840s and were made by Beer of Exeter, featuring brilliant colour. Several important 19th-century glass makers are represented in the nave and south aisle, including the Hardman Company and Lavers and Westlake. The tower is an important example in the county, and the 19th-century restoration work by Woodyer is of high quality. The stained glass represents a significant collection.