Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Black Torrington

Parish church dating from the 15th and 16th centuries, possibly incorporating some 14th-century fabric and evidence of Norman origins. The building was thoroughly restored in 1902-3 under the direction of Reverend Medley Fulford and Mr Lucius Reichel, when it had become dilapidated. The work involved restoration of the nave roof, partial rebuilding of the south wall, re-laying of the floor and re-seating.

The church is constructed of roughly squared sandstone rubble walls with granite dressings and has a gable-ended tile roof. The plan comprises a nave, south aisle and chapel, north transept, west tower and south porch. The building is basically Perpendicular in character, though the transept may represent the remains of a 14th-century structure.

Exterior

The 3-stage crenellated west tower has diagonal buttresses and obelisk pinnacles. The 2-light belfry openings have 4-centred heads. The west doorway is a 4-centred arch in granite with hollow and ogee moulding and inscribed scroll stops, fitted with an 18th-century fielded panel door. The west window has had its mullions and tracery renewed in Perpendicular style.

The north wall of the nave has tall 3-light straight-headed granite mullion windows of the 17th century. The north transept has a large lateral stone stack on its west wall and a possible 14th-century Decorated 2-light north window, with a 15th-century 2-light east window. The chancel north window is of similar style but smaller and partly restored. The east window is a complete early 20th-century restoration in Perpendicular style. A small inset slate plaque to the left of the window commemorates James Lake, rector from 1708.

The south aisle has tall 3-light granite mullions of the 16th century with segmental heads and buttresses dating from the restoration. There is a very shallow arched granite priest's door and a restored Perpendicular window at the west end of the aisle. The south aisle was probably an early 16th-century addition.

The gabled south porch has a 4-centred granite doorway with double-chamfered head and moulded jambs with capitals. Early 19th-century panelled gates with spikes above flank the entrance.

Interior

The porch has a plain early wagon roof, partly repaired. The very tall granite south doorway has a depressed 4-centred head with ogee and hollow moulding and ball stops.

Internal walls are lined with 20th-century plaster apart from the chancel, which is lined with dressed Hatherleigh stone. A 5-bay tall granite south arcade features Pevsner A-type piers with 4-centred moulded arches on capitals carved with a raised diamond motif. A very tall tower arch has a 4-centred double-chamfered head. There is no chancel arch. A simple rubble arch opens to the transept.

Within the transept is a piscina which reuses as its head a piece of stone carved with Norman zigzag design. The south aisle has a good wagon roof with carved ribs, bosses and wall-plate. Renewed arch-braced roofs to the nave, chancel and transept probably date from 1902.

An unusual 18th-century screen divides the aisle from the chapel, featuring 2 tall round-headed panels bearing quotations from the Bible with a fluted pilaster to either side of the central doorway. A modern carved pulpit is surmounted by a 17th-century cupola-shaped sounding board.

An octagonal 15th-century granite font has a stringcourse at the top of its shaft carved with trefoiled panels. 17th-century altar rails with a moulded handrail and turned balusters now stand in front of the font.

Memorials

A good slate memorial on the north wall commemorates members of the Coham family who died at various times between 1722 and 1768, with coloured heraldic shields at the top left and right. Beyond is a simpler memorial to Stephen Coham, buried 1757. At the west end is a long slate memorial with a white fluted column to either side and cornice above, surmounted by an armorial shield. An inscription on a round-headed marble slab commemorates William Holland Coham, Rector of Halwill, who died in 1852. The south wall has 3 further simpler early 19th-century memorials.