Church Of St Michael The Archangel (Parish Church Of East Teignmouth)

Church of St Michael the Archangel (Parish Church of East Teignmouth)

This parish church was built in 1821 by Andrew Patey in Norman style and was dedicated in 1823. It represents an early and unusual example of the neo-Norman style, which later became fashionable in the 1840s. The church stands on ancient foundations and has undergone several major additions and alterations: a chancel was added in 1875 by FC Deshon, a vestry in 1885, a west tower in 1887–9 by RM Fulford in Early English style, fenestration elsewhere dates to the late 19th century, and a South Lady Chapel was added in 1923 by Sir Charles Nicholson.

The building is constructed of rock-faced squared grey Plymouth stone with cream limestone dressings and some red sandstone to the facade and rear, with brown rock-faced stone to the returns. The roof is covered with concrete tiles.

The church is planned as a five-bay cruciform structure with various additions. The dominant feature is the west tower of five stages. The lower courses are of red sandstone, with a moulded plinth approximately 2 metres high. The pointed-arched entrance is flanked by buttresses with crocketed gables and finials, and the deep intrados is panelled in red and cream. The Norman-style tympanum is carved with a figure of St Michael overcoming the devil. An octagonal stair turret with loop-holes occupies the left-hand corner. Above the porch, a freestone parapet of five pierced quatrefoil panels spans the second stage. A circular window above is set under a pointed-arched hoodmould with red sandstone voussoirs. The third stage, blank to the front, features trefoil-headed lancet windows with red sandstone voussoirs to the returns. The fourth, shallow stage contains a clock. The fifth stage holds a tall louvred belfry of paired two-light openings, each under a crocketed gable. A tall castellated parapet of pierced panels is topped by octagonal towers in three stages at each corner, with crocketed spirelets to the angles. The spirelet of the stair turret is slightly larger. Flanking the tower to the front of the aisles are canted flat-roofed single-storey ranges; the left-hand one has an arched entrance. The set-back west ends of the aisles are of rock-faced Plymouth stone with moulded coping and fretted stone crosses to the gables, loop-holes to the apexes, paired two-light windows with red voussoirs over hoodmoulds, and a moulded string course at impost level.

The north side is of brown stone with a shaped fascia articulated by headmasks to the eaves and hoodmoulds to large semicircular-arched windows with circular lights to the tops. A gabled north transept at the centre is flanked by slender cylindrical towers with headmasks to the conical tops, a device reflecting the style of the former Saxo-Norman building. The east end has three gables and includes a hopperhead dated 1927, added when the Lady Chapel to the south-east corner was constructed. The outer gables have three-light pointed-arched windows flanking a large plain pointed-arched cream limestone panel with grey voussoirs and five lancet windows set wide apart with a trefoil to the apex. The south side features similar windows and transept to the north side, except for a large central semicircular window with circular lights over a large restored Norman arch. This arch displays dogtooth, chevron and cable mouldings supported by two responds with vertical and horizontal chevron moulding, possibly from the former church. Double planked doors are present.

Internally, the aisles are the same height as the nave, all featuring plastered barrel-vaulted roofs. The moulded arcade comprises segmental arches supported by slender octagonal columns approximately 10 metres high, which are of cast-iron clad in brick with cushion capitals. The aisles and nave are shallow barrel-vaulted with diagonal ribs and circular openings to the crossings. The chancel has a late 19th-century polychromatic tile floor, a painted roof and rich cornice with two cylindrical ornamental tiebeams.

The church contains notable fittings including a marble font by Fulford dated 1887, a reredos by Deshon from 1875, and a painted wooden panel dated 1700 bearing the arms of William III, presented to the church after the sacking by the French in 1690. A fine organ with ornamented pipes by Hawkins of Newton Abbot is positioned in the north-east corner and has been much restored and moved. Late 19th-century pine pews and pulpit are present, and a roodscreen was installed in 1924. Late 19th-century stained glass by the Drake family is also featured.

According to a charter of 1044 held in Exeter Cathedral library, Edward the Confessor granted to his chaplain Leofric land in the Manor of Dawlish described as being bounded on one side "by the salterns in the street on the west side of St Michael's Church". Leofric became Bishop of Exeter in 1050.