Church Of St Mary

This parish church dates primarily from the 15th century, with significant restorations in 1822 and 1846. The south wall and porch were rebuilt in 1822, and the chancel was largely reconstructed in 1846. The church is built of dressed granite brought to course with some granite ashlar, with granite, freestone and volcanic stone dressings. The north aisle is rendered in granite and freestone on its north side and west end, and the roofs are slate-covered.

The building comprises a nave, chancel, west tower, four-bay north aisle, a vestry on the north side of the chancel, and a south-west porch. Although the church was originally dedicated in 1261, the present structure appears to be Perpendicular work of the 15th century, except for the 1822 south wall and the 1846 chancel, which was built in the Decorated style. The arms of Bishop Lacy on a former font suggest that building work was carried out during his episcopacy (1420–1455). During the 1822 restoration, the south wall and porch were rebuilt. In 1846, the nave was extended eastward by one bay and the chancel was largely reconstructed in what was considered a correct archaeological style for the period.

Exterior

The chancel, dating from 1846, features diagonal buttresses, a coped east gable, and a three-light 12th-century Decorated east window with a hoodmould and carved label stops. On the south side are two two-light 1846 Decorated windows with hoodmoulds flanking a chamfered two-centred arched priest's doorway. The north side has one two-light 19th-century Decorated window with a hoodmould.

The easternmost bay of the nave, also from 1846, has granite ashlar buttresses with set-offs on either side and an 1846 Perpendicular three-light window with a hoodmould and carved label stops. The remaining nave windows are presumably from 1822—three-light Perpendicular windows with hoodmoulds, probably copies of the medieval windows they replaced.

The south porch, also from 1822, has diagonal buttresses and incorporates a reused shallow-moulded granite rounded outer doorway. A timber sundial sits in the gable, and the porch entrance is fitted with a pair of gates from the early 19th century or earlier, featuring fielded panels below a section of balustrade with bobbin-turned balusters and ramped top rails crowned by iron spikes. Inside the porch is a plain plastered vault and a plain narrow two-centred inner doorway with a two-centred door having six flush panels and strap hinges.

The north aisle has diagonal buttresses and is rendered on its north side and west end. The four-light Perpendicular cusped east window with Y-tracery has replaced mullions and carved 19th-century label stops, but the tracery and hoodmould are probably late 15th century. On the north side, four three-light Perpendicular late 15th-century cusped windows retain fine original carved label stops. The west window of the aisle has been blocked, probably when the gallery was added.

The 1846 vestry projects northward on the north side of the chancel and has a stone chimney at the north gable end, a two-light square-headed east window, and a doorway on the west side.

The three-stage battlemented west tower has set-back buttresses and no pinnacles. A grand battlemented north-east projecting stair turret rises above the height of the tower proper. The turret is rectangular at the bottom stage and polygonal above, with slit windows. The west door is chamfered with a two-centred arch. The west window is three-light and Perpendicular with replaced mullions but original tracery, hoodmould and label stops in a local volcanic stone. All four faces of the tower have two-light square-headed belfry openings in local volcanic stone with hoodmoulds, label stops and slate louvres.

Interior

The interior has plastered walls with all stonework painted, including the arcade. The four-bay arcade and the responds of the chancel arch are of unusual section: the usual arrangement of four hollows and four shafts is elaborated by subsidiary shafts and keel mouldings, creating an enriched effect in the moulded capitals (comparable to Doddiscombsleigh, according to Pevsner). The chancel arch is four-centred, the arcade arches are two-centred, and the tower arch is obscured by the west end gallery.

The nave and chancel roofs are open wagons with moulded ribs and bosses, appearing to be largely medieval. The chancel bosses are particularly fine and deeply cut with a variety of symbolic carving. The north aisle has a ceiled wagon roof with moulded ribs and foliage bosses. The plaster between the ribs has been painted to imitate fan vaulting, possibly in 1822.

Fittings and Monuments

The stone chancel screen and reredos are good examples of early Gothic Revival fittings. The crenellated three-bay screen has a cusped central bay with the outer bays subdivided and featuring traceried heads. The reredos is also crenellated with bays of blind arcading; two outer bays rise as elaborately carved gables, though the painted texts and altarpiece no longer exist. The Decorated-style east window by Beer was designed as an ensemble with the reredos.

The chancel contains a 19th-century trefoil-headed piscina on the south wall and a timber dado incorporating panels of early 16th-century decorative carving that may derive from a secular source. A fine early 17th-century bishop's chair in the chancel is said to have originated at Culver House in Holcombe Burnell parish.

The deep west end gallery and organ loft has a circa early 18th-century five-bay frontal of fielded panels divided by reeded pilasters, carried on timber Tuscan columns (one column missing). To the rear, the gallery is supported on an arrangement of stout plain 20th-century timbers.

The 18th-century timber drum pulpit has Gothic ogee-head panelling and an 18th-century carved panel of a cross and cherubs fixed to one side. The fine timber eagle lectern of 1846 stands on a triangular pedestal with nodding ogee arches and draper painting. The font is a circa 1846 copy of the original—an octagonal bowl carved with armorial bearings on a thick stem and moulded plinth.

The three-bay tower screen is probably early 16th century with unusual square heads to the traceried lights. The central bay is a two-leaf door, and the outer bays have king mullions.

The east end of the aisle serves as the Fulford family pew, enclosed by a low late 17th-century panelled screen which originated from the chapel of Great Fulford. The wall monument to Thomas Fulford (died 1610) and his wife features two recumbent effigies on an elaborately carved chest with a tester above supported on three Corinthian columns. Seven Fulford children kneel on a ledge fixed to the wall at the back of the tomb. The figures are in an unusually good state of preservation and some ancient colour survives.

A wall monument of 1700 to Francis Fulford has an inscription panel flanked by Corinthian columns with armorial bearings above. Below this monument, a cartouche commemorates his wife Margaret (died 1689). On the east wall, a Gothic Revival wall monument commemorates Baldwin Fulford (died 1847), with two inscription panels under Gothic arches on shafts. A brass wall plaque with a Latin inscription commemorates Baldwin Fulford (died 1871).

A Tudor-arched tomb recess on the north wall of the nave with foliage carving to the arch and shields in the spandrels is likely to be a Fulford tomb.

Bench ends in the chancel are 19th century, while those in the nave are 20th century. The head tracery of windows in the north aisle and nave contains fragments of medieval glass including several figures of saints and seraphim, all executed by the Doddiscombsleigh school of glass painters. The east window of the north aisle is by Fouracre and Watson of Plymouth.

The church has a fine medieval tower and arcade, tactful rebuilding work of 1822, and a fine early Gothic Revival chancel. The Fulford standing monument is of special interest.