Chapel Of St Lawrence

ASHBURTON

SX7569 ST LAWRENCE LANE 849-1/10/168 (East side) 07/08/51 Chapel of St Lawrence (Formerly Listed as: ST LAWRENCE LANE (East side) St Lawrence's Tower, Old Grammar School)

GV II*

Chantry Chapel, converted to Grammar School 1593-1983. C13; tower added early C16; nave rebuilt mid C18; schoolrooms added late C19 and 1911. Solid rendered walls; tower has buttresses, quoins and parapets of exposed granite. Late C19 schoolroom in limestone with red-brick dressings. 1911 schoolroom in limestone and granite. Slated roofs. Nave, W tower. Late C19 schoolroom at E end 1911 schoolrooms on S side. 3-stage tower with setback buttresses; NW stair turret. Pointed-arched W doorway with half-round and hollow mouldings; above it a 3-light window with 4-centred arch, the lights with cinquefoiled heads. Second stage has single-light windows with segmental arches; similar 2-light belfry openings in third stage. Parapet with battlements and finials. Small spire with weather-vane. Nave has on each side 3 round-arched windows with glazing-bars; heavily-moulded eaves-cornice. East wall (covered by late C19 schoolroom) has a blocked triple-lancet window. Late C19 schoolroom has pointed-arched windows with glazing-bars. 1911 schoolroom is in a version of the Tudor style with plain mullioned windows. Interior: nave has good rococo plasterwork: coats-of-arms on the walls in foliated surrounds, cornice with pendants. W gallery with C18 turned balusters. Around the walls, school benches with Gothic panelled fronts. The chapel was given to the Guild of St Lawrence, Ashburton, by Bishop Stapledon of Exeter in 1314. The chantry priest appears to have kept a school here and still did so when the chantry was dissolved in 1546. The maintenance of the school was a condition of the grant of 1593 to John Caunter and others. (Dartmoor National Park: The Chapel of St Lawrence, Ashburton (leaflet): 1988-).

Listing NGR: SX7571369846