Church Of St George

Church of St George

A Grade I listed church at Monkleigh, predominantly of the early 15th century with late 15th-century additions and significant 19th-century restoration work in 1862–63. The building is constructed of coursed slatestone rubble, later restored in the late 19th century with squared and coursed slatestone, beneath a stone-coped gabled stone slate roof.

The church comprises a chancel, nave with south aisle, south-east chapel (also known as Annery Chapel) and porch, and a west tower. The chancel's east gable displays a trefoiled lancet set over a three-light Perpendicular window with panel tracery, rebuilt in 1897. To the north is a mid-19th-century vestry with a pointed-arched doorway and Tudor-style window. A four-light Perpendicular window with Y-tracery is crowned by a hood mould with rosette-carved stops, showing some 19th-century restoration. The five-bay south aisle wall features similar hood moulds over three Perpendicular three-light windows, with intersecting depressed arches leading to the south-east chapel. Flanking the porch are two Perpendicular three-light windows with reticulated tracery under plain hood moulds. A 15th-century chamfered and pointed-arched priest's door stands to the east. The gabled south porch, of 15th-century date, displays a 19th-century sundial above a moulded granite doorway and a niche for a statue above an inner doorway; the inner doorway has a 19th-century door fitted with a 15th-century decoratively-carved lock. A mid-to-late 19th-century Perpendicular-style north window lights the north transept. The two-bay north aisle of the nave has hood moulds over three-light Perpendicular windows with panel tracery and a quatrefoil to the head of the east window; these flank a blocked doorway.

The three-stage west tower has offset setback corner buttresses and string courses. Above a 15th-century doorway with moulded-arched architrave and ancient studded plank door is a 19th-century Perpendicular-style three-light window. Label moulds cap second-stage trefoil-headed windows, while hood moulds crown two-light trefoil-headed belfry windows with Y-tracery. A canted stair turret with round-arched lights projects to the north. The tower terminates in a crenellated parapet with weathered crocketed pinnacles.

Interior

The sanctuary has a mid-19th-century tiled floor. The chancel floor is laid with 15th-to-17th-century Barnstaple tiles, as is the nave and aisle. An eight-bay arch-braced roof of mid-19th-century date spans the chancel and nave. The late 15th-century south arcade is constructed of granite with moulded depressed arches set upon quatrefoil-section piers and Perpendicular capitals with relief-carved lozenges to the abaci. The south aisle features a 15th-century wagon roof with moulded ribs, floral-carved bosses, and trailing vine-leaf decoration to the arcade plate.

Fittings include a mid-19th-century altar rail with reset 17th-century balusters. Mid-19th-century additions comprise choir stalls, a Gothic-style traceried pulpit, an eagle lectern, a traceried west screen and benches. Late 15th-to-early 16th-century carved bench ends at the west end of the nave bear carvings of the Passion symbols, arms of Annery families, tracery, and beasts.

The most notable feature is the early 16th-century parclose screen in the south Annery chapel, described by Pevsner as "amongst the most remarkable of the many Devon screens". The upper panels display Perpendicular openwork tracery with richly-carved leaf decoration, including a Pelican and Tudor rose, in the spandrels and frieze above. The lower panels feature applied tracery with ballflower ornament to cinquefoiled heads. A similar tracery scheme adorns the double doors. Panels are divided by cable-moulded pilasters with crocketed finials. The carvings show remarkable similarity to those at Weare Giffard Hall. A similar late 19th-century screen borders the north side of the south chapel. The south door of the chapel bears a late 15th-century architrave with finely-carved foliate decoration. Carved bench ends in the chapel include 15th-century examples bearing trade emblems.

Memorials

17th-to-18th-century ledger stones set into floors throughout. The chancel contains a stele-type wall tablet to Augustus Saltren Willet (died 1854) and a memorial to John Saltren (died 1794) comprising a stele-type tablet set on an obelisk-shaped mount, surmounted by a female figure in classical dress weeping over a draped urn. A late 16th-century brass of a kneeling man, set amongst twisted columns, heraldic shields, and other decorative plasterwork from a former monument, hangs above the north chancel door.

The north transept holds an inscribed slate plate to Jane Coffin (died 1646) and her baby son, depicted as a reclining mother holding her infant. An inscribed slate plate set in a shouldered marble architrave commemorates Henry Hurdinge (died 1627), showing him, his two wives, and their children kneeling in prayer. A monument with epitaph to William Gaye (died 1631) features a heraldic achievement with broken pediment and black marble pilasters flanking two demi-figures, each supporting their head with their hands.

The nave contains a stele-type wall tablet to James Lewis (died 1847).

The south-east chapel includes late 19th-and 20th-century wall tablets and an 18th-century memorial with a slate inscription panel set in an architectural frame with heraldic shields. The chapel also houses a fine monument to Sir William Hankford, Chief Justice of the King's Bench (died 1422). A vine-leaf frieze with an angel holding a shield is set above a recess with a crocketed canopy to a depressed pointed arch and quatrefoils to the arch intrados. A tomb chest with slate top and ogee-headed, crocketed panels is placed within the recess, with two 15th-century brasses set into slate ledger stones before the tomb.

Stained Glass

The east window dates to the 1890s. The heads of the south chapel windows contain reset 15th-century glass and 16th-century Flemish glass. An early 20th-century window lights the west end, and a window of 1863 is set to the south-west.

Historical Context

Hoskins has suggested that the parclose screen may date from 1537, when Dame Anne St. Ledger founded a chantry in the Annery chapel.