Church Of St Winifred

Church of St Winifred

The Church of St Winifred is a parish church of 15th-century origin, though built in varying stages. The chancel was destroyed by lightning in 1779 and subsequently rebuilt. The church underwent major restorations in 1865 and 1923 by Sir Charles Nicholson, with further work in 1925.

The church is constructed mainly of granite ashlar with a rendered tower. Dressed granite and volcanic stone provide detail to doors and windows. The nave and chancel are covered with slate roofs, while the aisles have lead roofs.

The plan comprises a nave, north and south aisles with chapels, and a west tower. A storeyed porch to the south is largely Perpendicular in style. The aisles may have been added at slightly different stages. The area around the south aisle chapel and the priest door to the chancel has undergone considerable alteration; the south chapel partly impinges on the priest door, possibly due either to the chapel being added to the chancel or to the rebuilding of the chancel after 1779.

The unbuttressed tower is in three stages with an embattled parapet and an octagonal polygonal stair turret on the south side with slit openings. There are two simple two-light belfry openings with four-centred heads. At the ringing stage is a small rectangular window opening on the south side. The three-light Perpendicular west window appears to be unrestored, with granite jambs and volcanic stone for the remainder. The west doorway has a two-centred granite arch with hollow and roll moulding. The south aisle has a set-back buttress with offsets and a parapet with moulded granite battlements, which continue around the porch and a polygonal rood stair turret projection. A chamfered plinth extends around the entire church. On the eastern and western windows of the south aisle, the tracery is a 19th-century replacement in Bath stone, while the central window is a complete 19th-century replacement in Perpendicular style. The west end window has carved headstops to the hoodmould, one of which has been mutilated. The original hoodmould survives on the easterly south aisle window, whose sill appears to have been raised when the window was rebuilt. A rood stair turret projects from the south aisle. The porch has set-back buttresses with offsets and a moulded two-centred arched granite doorway. The north aisle windows probably have 20th-century replacement mullions and transoms, with a late 19th-century hoodmould with carved headstops. The wall has been cut away below to allow access to a priest door adjoining in the chancel wall, which has a rounded arch and hollow and roll moulding with stops. The chancel east window is a late 19th-century three-light with Decorated star tracery and hood-moulded with eared stops, all in Bath stone.

The interior is of considerable quality. The stone-vaulted porch has moulded ribs, with round shafts bearing moulded capitals and bases that rest on granite seats either side. A holy water stoup on the south aisle wall is partially blocked by the addition of the porch. The south door has a four-centred arch with hollow and round moulding and cushion stops. Four-bay arcades extend to either aisle, featuring Pevsner A-type moulded piers and double-chamfered four-centred arches. The north arcade has shallow moulded capitals and cushion bases with keels at each corner. The south arcade has deep moulded capitals and square bases. There is no chancel arch. The tower arch, possibly earlier than the arcades, has double hollow and roll moulding with a fillet between, on cushion bases. The original roof to the nave and north aisle is a ceiled wagon roof with moulded ribs and wall-plates, carved bosses at intersections, and fleurons set at intervals into the wall-plates on either side of the nave. The last two bays of the chancel roof were rebuilt in the 19th century to form a ceilure over the sanctuary, painted and with carved bosses. The south aisle has an early 20th-century panelled roof with bosses on ribs. A granite doorway from the south aisle to the porch chamber has a three-centred arched head. Doorways to the rood stairs from the north and south aisles have four-centred arched heads. Original hollow-chamfered granite rear arches to windows survive. Old plaster remains in the north aisle and may include mural decoration.

The church contains a very fine late 15th-century richly carved timber screen extending across the nave and both aisles. The screen features Pevsner type A ogee-headed tracery. Much of the original double cornice is retained, with a running vine pattern, although the coving has been much rebuilt. Considerable original painting survives, though covered in places by later graining. The panels bear painted figures, and in the jambs and arch of the central doorway are carved figures underneath crocketed canopies. The original doors survive. The screen was restored in 1893 under the direction of Mr Sedding of Plymouth, and again in 1924–25. Parclose screens flank either chapel with square-headed tracery and Tudor arches to doorways, also retaining traces of ancient colouring, possibly early 16th-century. A reredos, presented in 1897 by Mrs Ffrench in memory of the Ffrench family and designed by Mr G. Prynne with panels painted by E. Prynne, comprises richly carved and gilded wooden panels in high Italian manner, painted with scenes of the nativity and crucifixion with crocketed canopies over the central panels. The church features a late 19th-century pulpit and carved lectern. Re-used linenfold panelling at the west end of the south aisle is probably late 15th or clearly 16th-century. The church was entirely re-seated in 1925. An organ, presented in 1921 by Philip Champernowne in memory of his son, is of mahogany and satinwood with inlay and classical details.

The church contains four 15th-century stained glass figures in the top of the north aisle window, second from the left; glass below is dated 1883. The western window of the south aisle has robust design stained glass dated 1927. The east window of the south aisle has a geometric pattern dated 1860. A small painted royal coat of arms on board hangs over the tower arch. Granite tombstones set into the floors of the nave, aisles, and chancel include examples dated 1620, 1633, and 1672 in the south aisle, one dated 1698 in the nave, and two in the north aisle dated 1658 and 1676; a third carries an illegible inscription but a carved heart in its centre. The chancel contains a marble slab in memory of Richard Eastchurch, rector from 1698, with a carved coat of arms. A simple 19th-century octagonal granite font is present. Three medieval bells survive: one cast at the Exeter foundry of Robert Norton about the end of the 15th century, and two others, dedicated to St Catherine and St George, probably cast locally by Johanna Hill, widow of a London bell-founder, with marks indicating a date between 1440–43.