Church of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew

Anglican parish church at Dowlish Wake. The building contains a fragment of chancel dating to the 13th century and a tower of the early 14th century, with some 15th-century work. It was mostly rebuilt in 1861–62 to designs by architect B. Ferrey, with H. Davis of Taunton as builder. The walls are constructed of ham stone, cut and squared, with ashlar dressings. The roof is Welsh slate, set between stepped coped gables.

The church has a five-cell plan comprising a single-bay chancel, a crossing with tower, a two-bay north-east chapel (known as the Speke Chapel), a three-bay nave with a north aisle, a south porch, and a north-east vestry. The chancel, mostly 19th-century work, has a chamfered plinth, eaves course, and angled corner buttresses. Its east window is a three-light opening with geometric-style tracery, and the south window is a two-light of matching design, both with labels and leaf-with-bird stop ends. In the south-west corner is a moulded pointed-arched doorway.

The Speke Chapel contains some early 15th-century work, though its east wall has been partly rebuilt. It has a plinth, eaves course, angled corner and bay buttresses, and three-light windows to the east and two-light windows to the two north bays, all with 15th-century style tracery set in hollowed recesses. A 19th-century matching vestry projects from the west bay; its north gable features a 14th-century style traceried two-light window with label, and the east wall has a flat-arched doorway.

The north aisle is a late 19th-century rebuild of 15th-century work. It has a plinth, string course and plain parapet, angled corner and bay buttresses, and three-light segmental-arched windows in shallow recesses with nearly art-nouveau tracery. The west window is a three-light opening with 15th-century style tracery and headstone label.

The nave has angled corner and bay buttresses, plinth and eaves course. Its south wall contains three-light 19th-century windows with 14th-century style tracery and headstop arched labels. The west window is also 19th-century work: a four-light opening with curvilinear tracery and bird-and-leaf stop label, beneath which is a blocked moulded pointed-arched doorway.

The south porch is 14th-century in origin but largely rebuilt. It has a plinth and angled corner buttresses, with a moulded pointed outer arch and label. An over-label scroll is lettered 'surely the Lord is in this place'. In the gable is a small figure of St Andrew in an arched recess. The inner door is more elaborately moulded, with another St Andrew figure in a recess above.

The tower rises in three stages with plinth and north-south corner buttresses, string courses (tripled above stage one), and a battlemented parapet. A hexagonal plan stair turret on the north-east corner rises slightly higher than the remainder. The south face of stage one has a three-light 15th-century style window with label. Stage two has a cusped lancet on the north side and a two-light plate tracery window to the west; these are repeated in stage three. The south face of stage two has a clock dial, and the south and east faces of stages two and three have two-light 14th- or 15th-century style windows without labels.

The interior is essentially 19th-century work with open timber roofs and plastered walls. The chancel contains a 19th-century painted reredos. The crossing has tall double-chamfer arches of 13th- or early 14th-century date with moulded caps; the remainder of the main fabric appears to be 19th-century.

The Speke Chapel contains a font of 11th- or 12th-century date, a tub-pattern design with arcaded sides, originally from the demolished church of West Dowlish (demolished by 1575). Between this chapel and the chancel is a somewhat restored table tomb with effigies of Joane (née Keynes) and John Speke, who died in 1442. In the north wall of the chapel is a marble and stone monument with a life-size bust of John Hanning Speke, the discoverer of the source of the River Nile, who died in 1864. In a trefoil cusped recess west of this is an effigy of Isabel Wake, who died in 1359. A brass commemorates George Speke, who died in 1528, described as the "builder of this part of the church".

Remaining fittings are 19th-century, though the south wall of the nave contains a fine 15th-century canopied statue niche, presumably removed and reset, now housing a 20th-century statue of St Andrew. A photograph taken before the restoration and now in the north chapel shows that little was left unaltered except parts of the tower. The first recorded rector dates to 1313.