Church Of St Petrocks

Church of St Petrocks

This is a former parish church, now redundant, located at Parracombe. The chancel dates from the 13th century, and the west tower probably contains most of the original 13th-century fabric. The nave, south aisle, and south porch were added in the late 15th or early 16th century. The interior fittings are almost entirely from the 17th and 18th centuries. The church was never restored in the 19th century after a new church was built on a site closer to the village.

The building is constructed of stone rubble with ashlar dressings and has slate roofs. The three-stage tower features an embattled parapet and crocketed pinnacles. Short angle buttresses rise only to the second stage. Built into the south-west buttress is a stone bearing a quatrefoil above a trefoil-headed blind traceried niche set on its side to each face, said to come from a former churchyard cross. The bell-openings are single round-arched with rough stone voussoirs on the west and south faces, with much narrower bell-openings to the north and east, all fitted with slate louvres. The lower stage has a single round-arched light to the south side and a straight-headed window opening to the second stage on the north side. A plaque on the south side records that the tower, five windows, east end, porch doors, and pulpit were damaged by lightning in 1908 and restored that same year.

The nave's south side has a Perpendicular square-headed window of two lights with a labelled hoodmould to the left of the south porch. The porch doorway has a depressed pointed arch with a moulded surround and hoodmould. Above the porch is a slate sundial. The porch has a ceiled waggon roof. The inner doorway is a four-centred arch with an ogee-hollow-chamfered surround and an original ledged door of four planks with cover strips and early iron handle and strap hinges with bifurcated ribs. To the right of the porch are two Perpendicular straight-headed windows of three lights each, with hoodmoulds with returned ends. Two stone plaques are set in the wall between them, inscribed "RD RT 1685" and "C W PP/SH/M". A four-centred arched priests' doorway to the right has a hollow-moulded surround. A slate wall monument to the right bears an inscription to Joseph Gammon, who died in 1801.

The south aisle has a Perpendicular east window of three lights with a depressed pointed arched hoodmould. The chancel has a small 13th-century east window of a pair of lancets. The gable-ended vestry has straight-headed timber windows of two round-arched lights to the east and west sides, and a clay belly chimneypot to a brick stack. The north side of the room has a Perpendicular straight-headed window of three lights with a labelled hoodmould and possibly a 17th-century ovolo-moulded stone mullion window of two lights.

The interior contains a remarkably intact 17th and 18th-century fitting. A low depressed pointed tower arch separates the tower from the nave. Waggon roofs throughout the nave and south aisle have variously carved bosses at the intersections of the ribs and purlins. The Perpendicular south arcade comprises four bays with depressed pointed arches and Pevsner A-type piers with standard leaf capitals. The chancel bay is infilled with an unmoulded semi-circular headed doorway cut through.

The altar stands on a raised plinth enclosed on three sides with communion rails featuring stick balusters with trefoil-headed fretwork between, and kneeling boards. Two slate floor slabs lie in front: that to the left commemorates William Newell (died 1696) and Reverend Richard Landon, Rector of Trentishoe (died 1776); that to the right bears an incised achievement and an inscription to John Newell, Rector (died 1681). A wall monument above the vestry door in a segmental arched recess has fluted pilasters flanking a tablet with a painted achievement above an inscription to Samuel, the seventh son of John Flamant, Gent (died 1755, aged 12 days).

Old benches with panelled backs stand to each side of the chancel. The chancel screen is straight-headed with four narrow lights to the left and six lights to the right, all with cusped ogee arches and traceried heads. Above is a timber-boarded tympanum bearing the Lord's Prayer, Ten Commandments, and Creed in four panels with the Royal Arms above. Below the Creed is inscribed "Walter Lock/Richard Harton/Churchwardens 1758". Box pews with two panelled doors, hinges, and peg hooks are complete to the north side of the nave and the tiered west end. The rest of the nave and south aisle are seated with probably 17th-century benches with moulded headrails.

The three-decker pulpit includes a minister's reading desk and clerk's seat. It has six principal facets with three fielded panels to each facet, an end fluted frieze, and a door with three fielded panels. An octagonal sounding board above features a painted soffit and the verse "We preach not ourselves but Jesus Christ the Lord" around the sides. The pulpit was reportedly damaged by the 1908 lightning strike and was restored that year.

Wall monuments include an oval medallion with a moulded surround on the north side of the nave, bearing painted verses from Exodus Chapter 25, Verse 8, 1 Chronicles Chapter 29, Verse 1, and 1 Corinthians Chapter 14, Verse 40. A similar medallion over the south doorway bears verses from Ecclesiastes Chapter 5, Verse 1, and Matthew Chapter 21, Verse 13. The south aisle's south side has three 18th-century wall monuments with timber architraves to Walter Lock (died 1663) and his son (died 1732), to David Lock (died 1786), and to John Lock (died 1803).

The font is probably Norman with a circular bowl set on four semi-circular half-shafts with engaged colonnettes at the corners. It originally stood at Martinhoe Church and was brought here in 1908.