Church Of St Peter

This parish church contains fabric spanning from the 12th century to the 1880s. The 12th-century font survives, the north transept dates from the 14th century or earlier, the south arcade is 14th and 15th century, and the tower is late 15th century. The church underwent substantial restoration in the 1880s. It is built of roughly squared stone rubble with granite and freestone dressings and slate roofs. Some arcade piers are Decorated in style, but the church is otherwise largely Perpendicular in character, although parts of the fabric may be earlier.

Plan and Development

The church comprises a nave, chancel, west tower, north transept, six-bay south aisle with one bay extending to the chancel, and a north-west porch. The pre-14th-century building was probably cruciform, with a south aisle added in the 14th century. Parts of the tower masonry may also date from the 14th century. In the 15th century the south aisle was altered and re-roofed, the nave re-roofed, and the tower rebuilt. The nave was refenestrated in the late 15th or early 16th century.

During the 1880s restoration, the chancel was extended, rebuilt and re-roofed, the north side rebuilt, and the north transept re-roofed. A porch was added on the north-west. Prior to this the main entrance appears to have been at the south-west. The 1880s fittings are of very high quality.

Exterior

The fabric of the chancel appears to be entirely 19th century. The coped east gable has kneelers and is crowned by a cross. There is a three-light Perpendicular east window with hoodmould and label stops below a pierced trefoil in the gable. The south wall of the chancel has a single-light trefoil-headed late 19th-century window. The north side has one similar window with a hoodmould and label stops, and one window of two trefoil-headed lights with a common hoodmould and label stops. The rectangular rood loft stair turret has a catslide roof and a slit window.

The north transept has a coped gable and a three-light square-headed cusped window of circa late 15th or early 16th century on the east side with hoodmould and label stops; the mullions have been replaced. The three-light granite Perpendicular north window with hoodmould and label stops is probably 19th century.

On each side of the south-west porch is a three-light square-headed cusped window of circa late 15th or early 16th century with hoodmould and label stops. The gabled 19th-century south-west porch has fish-scale slates, a plain arched outer doorway, a narrow round-headed chamfered inner doorway, and a plaster barrel roof.

Two straight joints in the south aisle suggest that it may have been partly rebuilt in the 19th century when three buttresses with set-offs were added. A shallow-moulded arched priests' door on the south side at the east end is late 15th or early 16th century with a circa 12th-century corbel head inserted above. The doorway at the west end of the south side is probably the reused outer doorway of a late 15th-century porch which no longer exists. This moulded arched granite doorway has a moulded square-headed architrave, carved spandrels, and a hoodmould with carved label stops.

The 15th-century four-light granite east window to the aisle is deeply recessed with Perpendicular Y tracery, cusped lights, hoodmoulds, and carved label stops. The three granite south windows are of more conventional Perpendicular design with hoodmoulds and carved label stops. The west window of the aisle is similar. A section of wall between the tower and the west wall of the south aisle probably represents the remains of the 14th-century west wall of the aisle.

Tower

The three-stage unbuttressed battlemented west tower has rectangular corner pinnacles with obelisk finials crowned with crosses. The tower has a projecting north-east stair turret of unusual design. The bottom stage is rounded to the west and has rubble masonry of small dimensions. The two upper stages are canted to the west, and the top stage rises above the battlementing of the tower proper as a battlemented turret with rectangular corner pinnacles. The west face of the tower has a chamfered west doorway with a hoodmould and label stops below a two-light square-headed Perpendicular window with hoodmould and label stops. Belfry openings on all four faces have two chamfered round-headed lights with slate louvres. A small chamfered lancet is at bellringers' stage on the south face.

Interior

The walls are rendered. The south arcade alternates between 14th-century Decorated octagonal piers in ashlar masonry and moulded 15th-century Perpendicular granite piers. The octagonal piers have short moulded capitals and tall bases of rectangular section. The granite piers have conventional Perpendicular mouldings but are constructed in two pieces lengthways with the shafts doubled at east and west. It has been suggested that this design was adopted to give them the same width as the 14th-century piers reused when the aisle was rebuilt. The granite capitals do not match the piers perfectly. The arches of the arcade are equally unusual. The chancel bay and the south side of the nave bays have a double roll moulding, but the inner order on the nave side is a chamfered freestone ashlar arch.

The 19th-century timber chancel arch springs from a carved moulded rood beam carried on moulded brackets and shafts supported on small corbels. The unmoulded tower arch is carried on simple imposts and has a relieving arch above.

The nave roof is a Perpendicular plastered waggon roof, unusually wide, with carved ribs, bosses, and wallplates. The wallplates are largely 19th century, but otherwise the carving is original with fine shallow foliage bosses of various designs. A waggon roof to the south aisle has similar carving with an original wallplate on the south side. The chancel roof is a 19th-century boarded ceiled waggon with carved ribs, bosses, and wallplates. The round-headed chamfered doorway to the roof loft stairs appears to have been recut.

Furnishings and Monuments

There is an outstanding 12th-century font, probably of Polyphant stone, with profile heads at the corners of the bowl. Three faces of the bowl are carved with foliage framed by a border moulding terminating in beast's heads of Scandinavian appearance. The fourth face contains a fine running animal with a similar border moulding. The bowl sits on a short octagonal stem and chamfered plinth.

The 19th-century fittings are of high quality. There is 19th-century tiling to the chancel. An elaborate 1880s reredos has five bays of minutely carved timber tabernacle work with flamboyant tracery over a tile painting of the supper at Emmaus, the timber frame of the reredos linked to the tile painting with trompe l'oeil effects. The theme of the painting is continued on a tin dado with stencil decoration and demi-angels running across the east wall on either side of the carved traceried hinged riddels that frame the reredos. The altar has panels of fleur-de-lis plate tracery which match the throne. There is a fine pair of priests' stalls and a timber arcaded altar rail. The choir stalls are elaborate with carved traceried panels to the ends and an integral parclose on the south side with cusped arcading. Also from the 1880s is the tower screen.

A good timber drum pulpit on a wineglass stem has panels of blind arcading filled with delicate diaper carving and symbols of Christ; it was carved by Northcott of Ashwater. The carved rectangular bench ends to the front of the nave and aisle are partly 19th century and partly 19th-century repairs of medieval bench ends, some carved with symbols of the Passion. The benches to the west with panelled ends are circa late 18th or early 19th century.

Two medieval stained glass heraldic shields survive in the east window: Carew impaling Carminow, Courtenay impaling De Redvers, and one shield of monogram. The east window itself is 19th century by Beer of Exeter.

Fixed to the south side of the south aisle is an elaborate circa late 15th-century Beerstone monument, probably to Thomas Carminow who died in 1442, probably moved from the south chancel chapel. The effigies of a knight and lady lie on a chest beneath a canopy with a heavily cusped arch, the principal cusps terminating in angels' heads. The chest is decorated with the remains of richly cusped blind quatrefoils, and a quatrefoil frieze crowns the tomb; the original cresting has been replaced by a circa 17th-century depressed timber pediment. The soffit of the canopy is decorated with ribs, and the remains of a gnadenstuhl is carved in a niche at the feet of the effigies.

There is a good 17th-century slate ledger stone fixed to the east wall behind the altar. A large plaster Royal Arms dated 1638 is fixed to the south wall, framed by Corinthian columns with a moulded plaster cornice at wallplate level. The Arms have been repainted in the late 20th century.