Church Of St Stephen

Church of St Stephen

Anglican parish church dating from the late 13th to early 14th century, with later modifications including a tower built around 1400 (possibly with a 16th-century upper stage), refenestration in parts, and extensive restoration work in the 19th and 20th centuries. The tower was rebuilt using old masonry in 1883, the chancel was reroofed and a porch added in the late 19th century, the church underwent restoration in 1929–30 (following SPAB principles), and the tower was restored again around 1980 when the parapets were rebuilt and the roof and floors relaid. Earlier restoration work was carried out in the 1880s by S. Cooper of Hatherleigh and in the 1920s by Harbottle Reed.

The building is constructed of coursed and roughly dressed local stone with remains of render on the nave, and has slate roofs. The plan comprises a chancel, north and south transepts, nave, and west tower.

The three-stage unbuttressed tower has a crenellated parapet with plain pinnacles. A 3-light west window has a continuous hoodmould, and the west door features unusual stops to a moulded round-headed opening, as does the plank door, both presumably dating from the 1880s restoration.

The nave is buttressed at its west end. A 2-light trefoil-headed window sits to the left of the gabled porch, which has an unmoulded arched opening with double wrought-iron gates. Inside the porch is an open ribbed barrel vault roof. The south entrance features a holy water stoup in the right jamb of a chamfered arch opening and a ribbed door dated 1620. To the right is a 3-light cinquefoil-headed window under a square hoodmould, and to the south transept a 2-light uncusped window. A similar 3-light window in the east wall is blocked in its lower portion. The chancel has a 3-light cinquefoil-headed window under a square hoodmould and a 19th-century 3-light east window. The north transept has a 3-light pointed arch window, the lower portion of which is blocked, and a 2-light cinquefoil-headed window on its north front. The north wall of the nave is mostly unlit except for a tiny 2-light square-headed opening east of a blocked north door.

The interior is rendered, with exposed masonry in the tower. There is no chancel arch. A moulded tie beam with a carved corbel in the chancel wall serves the north transept, and a tie beam serves the south transept. The tower arch is tall and narrow with a depressed pointed arched opening chamfered in two orders.

The roofs include a 19th-century scissor-brace roof to the chancel and late medieval roofs elsewhere: the north transept has a ribbed and plastered barrel vault with moulded wallplate; the south transept has a plastered barrel vault with a section of moulded wallplate; and the nave has a ceiled and plastered wagon roof with moulded wallplate.

Interior fittings and monuments include an ogee-headed piscina in the south transept (with no rere arch to the east window), a round-headed doorway to the roodstair in the north transept (the stair destroyed, with evidence of niches in the jambs of the east window), and a Norman font of the girdle tub-type with cable moulding between bowl and plinth. A large number of encaustic tiles made in Barnstaple in the early 16th century bear a variety of devices. Altar rails and pulpit of the 18th century are composed of twisted balusters, possibly reworked. A painted Royal Coat of Arms is dated 1714. The altar table, choir stalls, benches, and lectern are early 20th century, with a few remnants of earlier bench ends surviving.

Monuments include a good example to the two wives of Anthony Gregory, rector (died 1681 and 1689), comprising an oval tablet surrounded by cherubs' heads; incised slate tomb slabs to Robert Kill (died 1711, with coat of arms) and William Braund (died 1710); slabs also to William Kill (died 1663) and John Gifford (died 1788); and stones to Joan Short (died 1642) and an unidentified person with gothic lettering. The churchyard contains a fine collection of 18th- and 19th-century slate headstones.

This is a rare example of a church that survived the 19th century largely untouched and underwent a conservative restoration following SPAB principles in the early 20th century.