Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

This is a parish church of medieval origins with a 12th-century font and fabric partly dating to the 13th century. The building was extended by aisles, probably in the 15th century, and underwent major restorations in 1851 (date marked on the porch) and 1887 under architect Robert Medley Fulford. The structure is built of coursed red sandstone with Beerstone and Ham Hill dressings, beneath a slate roof.

The plan comprises a nave, chancel, north and south transepts, three-bay north and south aisles, a west tower, north-west porch, and south-east organ chamber. Early illustrations and descriptions indicate that the chancel and transepts originally date from the Early English period, though few Early English details now survive. The three-bay aisles are probably 15th-century, as may be the tower, which is described in historical accounts as having had a Decorated west window but appears visually to date from the 15th century. Most of the existing windows are 19th-century Perpendicular work. The 1851 restoration was substantial: the chancel was largely rebuilt and extended, the nave, south transept and aisle roofs were replaced, and the north porch was rebuilt. Robert Medley Fulford's 1887 restoration was more sensitive in approach, involving the repair of the screen, installation of a new timber chancel arch, stepping up of the chancel floor, provision of a north-east organ chamber, and re-seating of the nave.

Externally, the chancel is largely 1851 work with deep diagonal buttresses and a carved stone eaves cornice. The east end features a three-light 19th-century Perpendicular window with carved label stops and a priest's door with moulded frame on the south side. An embattled 1887 organ chamber stands on the north side, with a three-light cusped north window. The north and south transepts have diagonal buttresses and three-light windows in 19th-century Decorated style with carved label stops. A blocked opening appears on the east wall of the north transept, and a blocked lancet on the east wall of the south transept, both visible from inside. The three-bay north and south aisles are buttressed and feature three-light 19th-century Perpendicular windows. The battlemented west tower has diagonal buttresses, tall corner pinnacles, and an embattled polygonal north-east stair turret. A shallow-moulded west doorway sits beneath a three-light 19th-century Perpendicular window. Two-light traceried belfry openings appear on all four faces, with a cusped one-light opening at the bellringers' stage on the north side. The north porch, located in the westernmost bay of the north aisle, displays an 1851 date on the label stop of its moulded outer doorway. It has diagonal buttresses, quartrefoil windows to the returns, a 19th-century arched brace roof, and a good quality 19th-century inner door in a moulded frame.

Internally, the walls are plastered. An 1887 timber chancel arch is accompanied by a plain rounded tower arch. The three-bay north and south arcades have octagonal piers with capitals and rounded double-chamfered arches. An unusual junction occurs between the transept and aisle roofs, where the aisle roof wall-plate oversails the transepts and is supported on upward curving braces on corbels—a feature comparable to that at Stokeinteignhead, though it is unclear whether this is a medieval survival or a copy of the medieval arrangement. The ceiled wagon roofs are mostly of 1851, featuring roll-moulded ribs and small uniform carved bosses; the chancel roof has cross ribs and a wall plate carved with cherubs' heads. A five-bay rood screen has renewed coving and narrow, sharply-pointed openings.

The chancel contains 19th-century fittings. The 1851 reredos features blind tracery and stone cresting, flanked by gabled commandment boards. Stone seats to the sanctuary have heavily crocketted nodding ogee arches. A low stone communion screen is pierced with trefoils. The 1887 choir stalls have carved ends of unusual profile. On the north side of the choir, an 1887 stone canopied recess is associated with a two-light hagioscope into the transept. An arched opening from the south transept into the chancel, blocked in 1851, was re-opened as a hagioscope in 1887.

The nave contains a 12th-century font, probably re-cut, with palmette motifs on the bowl, saltire crosses decorating the rim, and a heavy cable moulding above the stem. A 19th-century timber drum pulpit with open traceried panels and a set of late 19th-century bench ends are also present. Dado tiling of startling glazed pink, added in 1907, runs along the aisle walls.

The north transept, which became the Gregory Fokeray chantry in the 15th century, contains a rounded chamfered piscina in the east wall and four 15th-century benches with two frontals. The bench ends are crowned with crouching animals and carved with figures and tracery. The south transept holds a tomb recess in the south wall with a 17th-century slate ledger stone fixed beneath the arch.

The monuments are of considerable interest. The most notable is to the Hockmore family in the north transept. This monument features a rustic ogee arch above a chest tomb, the arch decorated with pomegranates and crowned by an achievement. The chest displays armorial bearings in wreaths divided by bead and reel moulding and half-palmettes, with a brass inscription panel in a Purbeck matrix beneath the arch. The lid of the chest commemorates Gregory Hockmore, died 1571, whilst the ogival arch, dated 1613, commemorates Alice Hockmore. Two large slate ledger stones with coloured armorial bearings in relief are fixed to the transept walls, commemorating William Hockmore, died 1626, and Gregory Hockmore, died 1655. The monument detail is described as large-scale and rustic, said to be modelled in local clay. Numerous late 18th and 19th-century black and white marble wall tablets also survive, including a fine late 19th-century gabled and crocketted tablet in the south transept signed by T.H. Knight of Teignmouth.

The stained glass includes remnants of glazing from the 1850s or 1860s in the head tracery of the aisle and transept windows. An 1880s west window is probably by Drake of Exeter, and the east window dates from 1905, also by Drake of Exeter.