Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

A parish church with a complex medieval building history, substantially rebuilt and enlarged over several centuries, with a notable 1868 chancel restoration.

The church comprises a west tower, nave, chancel, north aisle, south transept, and south west porch. The fabric includes volcanic trap stone, with the chancel masonry snecked, tower ashlar, porch of squared and coursed stone, and nave, transept and north aisle roughcast with freestone dressings throughout. The roofs are of slate.

The south transept dates from the 13th century as part of an Early English cruciform church. A north chancel chapel or chantry was added in the late 13th or early 14th century, followed by a north aisle of late 14th-century origin, though later remodelled. The west tower was built in the late 14th or early 15th century. The unusual design of the north aisle windows may date from the late 14th century. The arch between the chancel and organ chamber shows evidence of multiple remodelling phases, as does the north arcade with its varying construction and mouldings.

In 1868, Edward Ashworth of Exeter completely rebuilt the chancel and chancel arch in Decorated style. The wall decoration he added has been obliterated in the 20th century. The 1868 chancel features a coped gable with single angle buttresses with set-offs and a Geometric Decorated 3-light east window with a hoodmould and large uncarved label paired stops. The south side has two chamfered lancets in square-headed architraves and one similar window. The south transept has a matching 1868 east window, a 2-light 19th-century south window with trefoil-headed lights and square-headed hoodmould with label stops. The west wall contains a 1-light chamfered Early English lancet. A false gable divides the nave from the chancel; the nave itself has one 2-light square-headed chamfered window.

The north aisle has a diagonal east buttress and unusual windows which Pevsner suggested may date from the late 14th century. The east window consists of paired 2-light arched cusped traceried windows in a square-headed architrave divided by a single moulded mullion. Five similar windows line the north side, whilst the west window of the aisle comprises three cusped lights below head tracery in a square-headed architrave.

The grand west tower rises in three stages with battlements and diagonal buttresses with set-offs. A projecting south east battlemented polygonal stair turret is topped with slightly oversailing polygonal corner pinnacles carrying obelisk finials. A shallow-moulded granite west doorway sits below a 3-light Perpendicular west window with renewed tracery and hoodmould. A string course rises as a hoodmould above a cusped ogee-arched statue niche on the west face, and a chamfered bellringers' opening marks the south side. 2-light traceried belfry openings appear on all four faces.

The tall battlemented south west porch has a chamfered rounded outer doorway.

Interior

The porch interior contains stone benches and a flat plastered ceiling, though corbels for vaulting ribs survive. The rounded chamfered inner doorway has a hoodmould and a 19th-century tin text.

The main interior features plastered walls and a tall chamfered volcanic tower arch. A 19th-century chancel arch springs from a corbel on the south wall and a pier and capital to the north, which abut a medieval pier. A steeply-pointed arch leads to the transept, and a surviving corbel marks a former arch between the north aisle and north chancel chapel.

The arcade is of complex construction. The east respond, west respond and westernmost arch are volcanic stone, whilst the remainder are Beerstone with different mouldings to the piers and arches and rustic carved capitals. The arch between the chancel and north chancel chapel is of unusual design, probably resulting from adjustments to accommodate the aisle and chancel chapel against the pier of a former north transept. The easternmost respond is partly late 13th or early 14th-century work with a fragment of an early arch containing a shallow image niche, abutting a volcanic double-chamfered arch on the chancel side and a further granite chamfered arch. On the chancel chapel side, two granite chamfered arches abut the volcanic arch. A trefoil-headed piscina in the south chancel chapel confirms an early date for this fabric.

The nave and aisle roofs are unceiled waggons with moulded ribs and bosses, largely 19th-century in their current form, though parts of the carved wall plate in the north aisle are medieval. The chancel roof dates from 1868 with collar rafters and struts. The transept roof has slender ribs ceiled with 20th-century sheeting.

The chancel contains an 1868 low stone screen with blind tracery divided by shafts with carved capitals; iron railings above have been removed. A 4-sided stone pulpit on a wineglass stem is attached to the screen, brattished with trefoil-headed blind arches containing paintings of saints on tin. The chancel floor has good 1868 tiling on the sanctuary step and a particularly fine 1868 altar rail with painted iron foliage. Co-eval choir stalls have poppy-headed ends and open tracery. A 19th-century parclose screen divides the chancel from the north chancel chapel. A good set of 1868 brass fittings includes a candelabra and processional cross.

The 19th-century stained glass in the chancel forms part of the architectural design, including a good east window by Drake of Exeter with quarries in the north and south windows. The south transept preserves a circa late 13th or early 14th-century ogee-headed Beerstone tomb recess with rustic cutting.

The nave and aisle contain some medieval bench ends and benches dating from approximately the early 16th century, carved with tracery and fleur de lis motifs. Bench ends from circa the 1870s display various tracery designs. A 19th-century octagonal font with carved panels on a carved stem stands in the nave.

Memorials include numerous ledger stones paving the church floor. A particularly fine brass wall monument commemorates the wife of Dr Edward Gee, rector from 1596 to 1618. The inscription, in both Latin and English, is unusually sophisticated: "Yett shall thy features 0 my Jane out of my heart then slyde/when beasts from field and fishes all out of the seas shall glyde/". A large Gothic wall monument on the south wall of the nave commemorates members of the Langdon family, recording names from 1821 to 1898.

This medieval church presents an intriguing building history with some unconventional medieval tracery for the county and a notably successful 1868 chancel restoration with good co-eval furnishings and fittings.