Chapel Of St Lawrence

The Chapel of St Lawrence is a chantry chapel that was converted into a grammar school from 1593 to 1983. It dates back to the 13th century, with a tower added in the early 16th century, the nave rebuilt in the mid-18th century, and schoolrooms added in the late 19th century and in 1911. The building features solid rendered walls, while the tower has buttresses, quoins, and parapets made of exposed granite. The late 19th-century schoolroom is constructed from limestone with red-brick dressings, and the 1911 schoolroom is made of limestone and granite. The roofs are slated.

The structure includes a nave and a west tower, with the late 19th-century schoolroom located at the east end and the 1911 schoolrooms on the south side. The three-stage tower has setback buttresses and a northwest stair turret. It features a pointed-arched west doorway with half-round and hollow mouldings, and above it is a three-light window with a four-centred arch and lights that have cinquefoiled heads. The second stage has single-light windows with segmental arches, and the third stage has similar two-light belfry openings. The parapet is adorned with battlements and finials, and a small spire with a weather vane tops the tower.

The nave contains three round-arched windows with glazing bars on each side and a heavily-moulded eaves cornice. The east wall, which is covered by the late 19th-century schoolroom, has a blocked triple-lancet window. The late 19th-century schoolroom features pointed-arched windows with glazing bars, while the 1911 schoolroom is designed in a version of the Tudor style with plain mullioned windows.

Inside, the nave showcases impressive rococo plasterwork, including coats-of-arms on the walls surrounded by foliage, and a cornice with pendants. There is a west gallery with 18th-century turned balusters, and around the walls, school benches with Gothic panelled fronts are present. The chapel was given to the Guild of St Lawrence in Ashburton by Bishop Stapledon of Exeter in 1314. It appears that the chantry priest maintained a school here, which continued when the chantry was dissolved in 1546. The maintenance of the school was a condition of the grant made in 1593 to John Caunter and others.