Church Of St James (Parish Church Of West Teignmouth)

Church of St James, Parish Church of West Teignmouth

This is a parish church of mid-13th-century origins, substantially rebuilt in 1821, restored in 1890 by WH Lloyd of Birmingham, and again in 1953 following Second World War bombing to the east end.

The 1821 church was designed in Picturesque Gothic style by WE Rolfe of London and built by Andrew Patey of Exeter. The structure uses red sandstone rubble for the 13th-century tower, while the rest is constructed of strap-pointed squared grey Plymouth stone with cream limestone and rendered dressings.

The building comprises a square-plan tower and an octagonal-plan nave of 1821 connected by a short two-storey passage. The three-stage tower, restored in 1929, measures approximately 10 metres square at the base. It has a moulded pointed arch to the planked west door, a high rendered plinth, two wide buttresses to the first stage of the east front and one to the south corner, with a parapet likely dating from 1929. The second stage contains one lancet window with a wider belfry opening above, partly covered by an 1896 open wrought-iron clock face. The left return has a segmental arch to a blind window and a similar clock face, while the right return features a 20th-century leaded lancet window at the base, a blocked window with limestone jambs to the second stage, and a similar clock face over a louvred lancet opening to the third stage. The tower walls are approximately 1.5 metres thick at the base.

The octagonal nave behind the tower has a rendered castellated parapet and octagonal buttresses at each angle. Tall pointed-arched leaded windows of pale green glass feature hollow-moulded mullions and some transoms, forming two and three-light windows with intersecting tracery. The nave is crowned by a central octagonal slate-hung lantern with a castellated parapet and wide pointed-arched windows with lace-like tracery.

The late-19th-century vestry to the south-east angle is more traditional in style, built of Plymouth stone with freestone parapet and heavy sill string course. It has architraves of the same material, four granite steps leading to a central planked door in a chamfered architrave with roll-moulding and curved upper corners, flanked by cinquefoil-headed two-light windows (one to the left, paired to the right). The late-19th-century south porch follows the style of the 1821 building but at smaller scale, with a door in the left return comprising two rows of three trefoil-headed panels.

Interior

The interior was remodelled and re-pewed in 1890 when the gallery was removed except at the east end. The roof is exceptional, supported by a circle of eight ribbed cast-iron columns approximately 10 metres high, from which cast-iron rib vaults fan out in an umbrella-like structure. The central lantern has similar vaulting, with eight panels below the windows each containing paired hemispherical-arched niches with trefoil heads flanked by moulded panels.

Fittings include a massive medieval 6.7-metre-high oak ladder in the north-west corner of the tower leading to the belfry, with stiles of pit-sawn wych-elm measuring 0.26 metres by 0.13 metres and oak rungs 0.11 metres by 0.05 metres. The central panels of a 14th-century Decorated-style Massy stone reredos are flanked by 19th-century panels dating from the 1891 restoration. The font, pulpit, organ, bells, and hatchments are 19th or 20th century in date.

Historical Context

The original 13th-century church was consecrated in 1268. The unbuttressed medieval tower was believed to be part of the town's defences. Patey's 1821 church is principally distinguished by its octagonal lantern supported on cast-iron columns with a remarkably elegant vault. The early use of structural cast iron is significant, echoing work in other early-19th-century churches such as Dudley. Sources differ on attribution: the church booklet credits William Bragg of Westbrook House as patron and Andrew Patey as architect, while Pevsner identifies WE Rolfe as architect and Patey as builder.