Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Marystow

This parish church comprises parts of a 12th-century structure with substantial medieval and later additions. The 12th-century church, originally probably consisting of nave and chancel, is represented by a surviving remnant of the south doorway and possibly the chancel masonry. The south wall masonry suggests there may have been a 13th-century transept and cruciform plan, with the chancel remodelled in the 14th century. A north aisle and west tower were added in the late 15th century, with some 16th-century alterations. The 19th century saw a two-bay gabled extension added to the north chancel chapel, the chancel restored, and roofs replaced.

The building is constructed largely from local stone rubble with dressed granite brought to course forming the upper parts of the tower and front of the porch, together with granite and freestone dressings and an asbestos slate roof.

The chancel's east wall has a coped gable with kneelers and a three-light Decorated 19th-century east window with hoodmould. A straight joint between the east and south walls and a pilaster buttress at the east of the south wall indicate that the east wall has been rebuilt. Two Decorated two-light windows on the south wall with hoodmoulds are 19th-century restorations of 14th-century windows. The easternmost window is small and set high under the eaves to allow for the 14th-century double sedilia inside.

The nave south wall masonry is very patched, with a pilaster buttress at the east of the wall possibly marking the opening of a former transept. A two-light square-headed granite window to the west of the porch appears to be late 19th or 20th century. To the east of the porch stands a tall three-light arched 15th-century Perpendicular window with a moulded architrave, followed by a very large four-light uncusped square-headed granite 16th-century window with hoodmould. A similar window appears in the north aisle. Disturbance to the masonry below the window suggests it may have been inserted in the position of an opening to the former transept.

The north aisle has an arched three-light Perpendicular 19th-century window to its east wall, and two 15th-century arched freestone Perpendicular windows with hoodmoulds to the west of the three-light 16th-century granite window. The west window of the aisle is a three-light arched Perpendicular 19th-century window with a hoodmould. The two-bay 19th-century addition on the north side has two gables to the north and two two-light granite 19th-century Decorated windows with hoodmoulds.

The upper parts of the west tower were rebuilt in granite in 1824. The three-stage battlemented tower features diagonal buttresses and an internal north-west stair turret with slit windows. The buttresses have set-offs and rise to the string course below the battlementing, where they terminate in octagonal corner pinnacles external to the parapet and are crowned with obelisk finials. The west face has a shallow-moulded arched west doorway with a hoodmould and a three-light 19th-century granite arched Perpendicular west window with a hoodmould formed by the rising string. On the east face the string course rises to form the hoodmould of a tall rectangular chamfered opening at bellringers' stage, which has a stanchion and saddle bars. Two-light chamfered square-headed belfry openings face all four sides.

The south porch has a coped gable and slate roof. It features an almost round-headed doorway chamfered on both sides, a canted boarded 19th-century roof, stone benches, and a holy water stoup. A rectangular recess in the porch appears to have been a fireplace, though the chimney has since been blocked. Above the moulded arched circa early 16th-century inner doorway is an order of 12th-century moulding with a saltire cross and billet decoration. A studded door dates from circa late 16th or early 17th century.

Interior

The interior features a 19th-century timber chancel arch, widened at the south to take in the thickness of the south wall. A six-bay 15th-century north arcade contains two bays extending to the chancel, with granite monolith piers of four shafts and four hollow-chamfered arches. The north aisle is equal in width to the chancel. The unmoulded tower arch rises above the apex of the 19th-century ceiled waggon nave roof with ribs and bosses. Similar roofs cover the chancel and north aisle, with the north aisle roof carried straight through to the north chancel chapel. The 19th-century addition to the north chancel chapel has a single stone pier repeating the mouldings of the 15th-century piers, supporting a double timber beam.

The south chancel windows have 14th-century internal masonry and 14th-century Beerstone inner arches, the mouldings dying into the walls. Fine 14th-century Decorated double sedilia with deep cusping are present. Metal commandment boards and good east wall tiling, probably from the 1860s, are notable features.

A fine 12th-century font has a square bowl with chamfered corners below four carved heads with angular profiles. The sides of the bowl are carved with intersecting round-headed blind arcading and leaf ornament with frieze. The bowl stands on a probably later chamfered stem and plinth.

Three bays of the late 15th or early 16th-century rood screen are re-used as the tower screen, including the doorway bay. Wholly Gothic in character, the screen features Pevsner A type tracery and deep blind tracery to the wainscot panels. Wainscot paintings no longer exist, but some traces of ancient colour survive on the screen. The coving and rood loft have disappeared.

A 1903 five-sided drum pulpit features open traceried panels on a stem with struts. Bench ends and choir stalls from circa late 1860s display rectangular bench ends with a variety of blind tracery designs and doors to each bench.

The north chancel chapel is dominated by a massive monument to Sir Thomas Wise of Sydenham, died 1629, described by Pevsner as "One of the most ambitious monuments in Devonshire". The monument is freestanding with two recumbent effigies on a Caen stone base on a plinth with four pairs of Corinthian columns supporting a coffered arch crowned with corner obelisks and armorial bearings. The soffit of the arch is decorated with cherubim in panels. Other members of the Wise family are freestanding on the plinth: two three-quarter size kneeling figures face one another across a prie-dieu at the head of the monument, and a small girl in an armchair and a baby in a cradle are on the south side. Some of the figures are not in their original positions. Some ancient colour survives. An achievement, probably originally part of the Wise monument, is fixed to the west wall of the 19th-century addition, consisting of a helmet with a lion crest and a pair of gauntlets.

A 1661 painted panel of the Royal Arms is present. Several 17th-century memorial slabs are used as paving. Fixed to the exterior west wall of the church is a good slate memorial to Grace Hawkins, died 1704, and Edward Hawkins, died 1713. Two oval inscription panels with cherubim and skulls and cross bones in the spandrels are divided by a central rectangular panel with flowers, hourglass and deathshead carved in relief. Fixed to the south wall of the chancel is a slate memorial to James Sergeant, died 1656, with an inscription and verse within a decorated border.

The survival of 14th-century work in the chancel is unusual in the county, and the grandness of the Wise monument makes this an outstanding building.