Parish Church Of St Nectan

The parish church of St Nectan is a substantial building, largely dating from the 13th century, with a north aisle added in the 15th century. It underwent significant restoration in the 1820s by Salvin, and the interior was refurbished in 1885, as noted on a plaque within the church. The church is constructed of stone rubble with slate roofs.

The building follows a 13th-century cruciform plan. Most of the lancet windows are restored, possibly as copies of Early English originals. A north aisle was added in the 15th century, and Salvin's restoration in the 1820s incorporated Gothick interior details. The chancel features set-back buttresses and a probably 19th-century Perpendicular east window, with a lancet window to the north. The south side has a lancet window and a single early 19th-century Y tracery window. The transepts also have set-back buttresses; the south transept has single lancets to the east and west walls, and a Perpendicular window to the south. The north transept has a triple lancet east window and a 19th-century Perpendicular window to the north. The aisle has two 3-light cusped windows with depressed arches, similar windows being present along the nave’s length. A three-stage, tapering, battlemented tower, lacking buttresses, is topped by an internal northwest stair turret. The west face of the tower features a 19th-century door and ground floor window with Y tracery; above this is a 3-light 19th-century window with a depressed arch. A 19th-century south porch has diagonal buttresses, a chamfered arched outer doorway, and a niche above the doorway. The inner doorway is also 19th-century, featuring a good Gothick door with blind tracery, and a wagon roof with plaster moulded ribs and small bosses.

Internally, the walls are plastered. A rounded moulded chancel arch sits on moulded responds, with carved capitals. The 1820s tower arch is flanked by pairs of engaged shafts with bell capitals, decorated with Gothick panelling and applied flowers. The north arcade has rounded moulded arches on carved capitals, with plaster pendants above the capitals. Wagon roofs, with moulded ribs, have 1820s Gothick ornamental gables where walls, plates, and lateral ribs meet. The chancel includes a low trefoil-headed piscina on the south side, and a 20th-century reredos. A rounded arch on the south side may represent a tomb recess. Notable furnishings include a fine probably 17th-century chair (not of English origin) in the chancel, a gilded timber eagle lectern dated 1735, an octagonal 19th-century font on a pink marble stem with slender black marble shafts, and an openwork font cover. There is an interesting and unusual set of 16th or 17th-century benches, with bench ends carved with two tiers of blind tracery, bordered by grotesques, reptiles, and snakes. A probably 17th-century chair is also present in the nave, featuring an inlaid back. A wall tablet in the chancel commemorates Jane Parkyns, who died in 1817, and is signed by Jago and Davey of Dawlish. Fragments of late medieval, 17th and 18th-century glass, including some Flemish roundels, are leaded into the east window, and the north transept’s east window contains memorial glass dated 1885, possibly by Drake of Exeter. The church is a rare example in Devon of a predominantly 13th-century building.