Church Of All Hallows

Church of All Hallows, Woolfardisworthy

This is an Anglican parish church of Norman origin, substantially developed in the mid-15th century with additions continuing into the 19th century. The building comprises a nave, chancel, and long north aisle, with a south transept, south nave porch, and west tower. It is constructed mostly of coursed local rubble with slate roofs and stone coped verges.

The 15th-century tower dominates the exterior. It is a staged tower with offsets between stages and a central five-sided crenellated stair-turret. The stair-turret rises above the body of the tower and features a series of trefoiled and quatrefoiled openings on its south facade. The tower has an embattled parapet with corner pinnacles, probably dating from the 18th or early 19th century. The bell-chamber contains two-light windows, two of which are 15th-century with tracery, alongside a square-headed window of similar date. Large square corner buttresses occupy the bottom stage. A three-light west window has tracery replaced in the 19th century, and the west doorway sits within a simple surround of two orders, also replaced in the 19th century.

The nave is two bays with windows having virtually semi-circular heads—one of two lights and one of four lights. The openings and reveals are ancient, though the windows themselves are 19th-century Perpendicular in style. A Norman semi-circular-headed south doorway has three orders of moulding with chevron and beak-head ornament, carved cushion caps and hook shafts; the door itself is probably 18th-century. A gabled 19th-century porch features a floor made from reused 17th-century monument slabs.

The south transept contains a large four-light window with 19th-century tracery. A three-light window to the west has a basket-arch head, also 19th-century work.

The north aisle spans five bays with a chamfered stone cornice and three-light windows. Two windows to the east retain original 16th-century tracery and jambs; one has tracery renewed in the 19th century, and one window is blocked, probably from the 17th century when a monument was introduced into the aisle. The north wall displays two 18th-century memorial slabs with good incised lettering and emblems of mortality. A simple chamfered stone four-centred arch forms the north doorway. Restored 19th-century windows occupy the east and west ends.

The chancel features two late 16th-century windows on the south side, each two-lights with square heads and stopped labels, with a cinquefoil at the head of each light. Between these sits a doorway with a simple chamfered stone surround and probably 18th-century door. A three-light east window has 19th-century Perpendicular tracery, though the opening and reveals are certainly earlier. A small 19th-century vestry stands at the east end of the aisle, with a chimney featuring a projecting rubble breast and brick shaft. A two-light window of 16th or 17th-century date has been reused to the east. Both the aisle and chancel contain doorways fitted with 19th-century wrought-iron dog gates.

The interior lacks a chancel arch; the rubble tower arch may have been rebuilt. Internal walls retain much early plaster. Flagstone floors survive, though those in the chancel and part of the nave have been replaced with concrete slabs. Plaster barrel ceilings dating from the 17th century feature large bold cornices and probably conceal medieval roofs.

A five-bay arcade of depressed four-centred arches fronts the aisle, each arch resting on four-clustered shafts, two of which bear carved initials to their capitals. A 13th-century font comprises a square bowl on a central shaft of clustered columns with four angle shafts, retaining traces of ancient colour. The aisle contains what is believed to be an early altar. Stained glass is 19th-century work, including an east window in the north aisle of 1870 and another of 1925 by Drake and Sons of Exeter. Two 17th-century tables survive, along with 19th-century reading pulpit, altar rails, and chains. Fine Perpendicular carved bench ends, dating from the 15th or 16th century, display various religious devices in the nave and north aisle; other benches are 19th-century replacements.

The chancel contains a white marble oval wall tablet with urn above commemorating Mary Hammer (died 1793) and a white marble Neo-Classical tablet to Bartholomew Prust of 1862, made by Baker. The north aisle holds a large, good quality monument of early 17th or late 16th-century date to a member of the Cole family. Ancient colour survives throughout; the monument features trophy reliefs supporting a round-arched recess framing a reclining armoured figure with an inscription panel in a faint strapwork cartouche. Flanking Corinthian columns support a pulvinated frieze and attic storey with three armorials in strapwork frames between two obelisks. A limestone and grey marble wall tablet to John Whitlake, dated 1750, has a Roman Doric frame to the inscription and urn above, with a secondary cartouche in the apron below for Mary Whitlake (died 1750). A plain rectangular white marble tablet records John Robbins, "who was thrown from his horse and perished in a deep snow on 11th Feb 1784". Adjacent above is the apron of a missing 17th-century limestone monument with skull, wings, fronds, and cherubim, retaining ancient colour and gold. A tablet to Reverend Joseph Prust, Neo-Classical in white and grey marble, dates from the first half of the 19th century and is by Baker.

The church was restored in 1872, when windows were renewed and the north vestry was probably added.