Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is an Anglican parish church located in East Lydford, built in 1866 by architect B. Ferrey for Rector J. J. Moss. The church is constructed from coursed and squared lias rubble with Doulting dressings, featuring coped verges, cruciform finials, and tile roofs with crested ridges, except for the stone tile roof of the chancel. It has a nave and south porch, a chancel with a north-east tower, and a vestry at its base. The design reflects a late 13th-century style with elements of Middle Pointed mannerism.

The tower has octagonal upper stages and a lancet on each face around the top, topped with a stone spire featuring gabled lanterns. The north side includes a 3-light window that incorporates texts, and there is a shallow stair turret. The nave consists of three bays, while the chancel has a single bay, with lancets and 2-light windows featuring Geometrical tracery. The east end has a 3-light window, and the west end has paired lancets and a rose window, which was much damaged at the time of re-survey in August 1984.

The porch is elaborately decorated with carved flora and two heads serving as label stops. The interior is lofty and finished in Doulting ashlar, featuring an arch-braced roof in the nave and an unceiled wagon roof in the chancel, which also has encaustic tiles. The chancel arch is supported by coupled detached Purbeck shafts with foliate capitals and dog-tooth ornamentation facing the nave. The chancel windows are flanked by further Purbeck shafts.

Inside, there is a reredos in neo-Jacobean style, along with co-eval pews and choir stalls that feature charming animal carvings. A plain 13th-century octagonal font has been reused from an earlier church. There is also a 15th-century alabaster relief of St. George, reused, along with a small tablet with a Roman inscription. The vestry contains 18th and 19th-century wall monuments, as well as an iron chest with raised lettering that reads "East Lydford Register Chest 1813." The east window features stained glass from 1879 by C.E. Kemper, designed in an early 16th-century style.