Church of All Saints

Details

HOLCOMBE ROGUS HOLCOMBE ROGUS ST 01 NE 5/114 Church of All Saints - 5.4.66 GV I Parish church. C15 but in 2 or 3 building phases, restored 1875-80 and vestry added in 1898. Grey-coloured chert rubble laid to rough courses, some red sandstone and purple-coloured volcanic trap ashlar used internally; mostly Hamstone and Beerstone detail; slate roof. Plan: nave and chancel under a continuous roof. North and south aisles both overlap the chancel; the north side contains the Bluett chapel but the south aisle chapel has now been converted to the organ loft. West tower with 1898 vestry off the north side. South porch. Perpendicular style thoughout. Exterior: tall west tower of 2 stages with set back buttresses and embattled parapet. The stair turret projects square from the south-east corner. There are carved gargoyle water spouts on all corners and the corners of the stair turret parapet are carved with large faces. 2-light belfry windows with Perpendicular tracery. West doorway is a 2-centred arch with moulded surround and above it a restored 3-light window with Perpendicular tracery. The south porch, at the left end of the aisle has diagonal buttresses and a Beerstone ashlar front containing a Hamstone 2-centred outer arch with richly-moulded surround and hoodmould with crudely carved human head label stops. Above a blind arcade with cusping and soffit-moulded cornice. Inside a good Beerstone fan vault with carved bosses, some featuring the Tudor Rose. The south doorway is a moulded Tudor arch with carved foliate spandrels and hoodmould. It contains an ancient studded plank door with moulded coverstrips. Both aisles and chancel have set back corner buttresses but south aisle has a Beers tone coping to a low parapet and this is carried round the rood stair turret which projects square. Most of the windows have been restored. Nevetheless south aisle and chancel have similar Beerstone windows, some with recut carved human head label stops. Most are 2 lights but the east chancel window is 4 lights. The north aisle windows are Hamstone and these have a different style of tracery and Tudor arch heads. Good interior: nave and chancel have a continuous wagon roof. That in the nave was plastered over in the C19 but C15 carpentry is thought to survive here. The chancel roof is a C19 rebuild with new carved bosses and boarded back. However both aisles have good C15 wagon roofs. Although both have moulded ribs and purlins and good carved oak bosses they are different in character. The south one is ceiled and has a plain wall plate. The north one is now open and it has a richly-carved wall plate with crestwork and there are carved oak angels holding shields under each main truss. The tower has a C19 ringing floor. Tall plain tower arch with triple- chamfered arch ring. No chancel arch although the arcades are interrupted at this point and the wider space between the piers has Beerstone Perpendicular panelling. Each side of the nave are 4-bay Beerstone arcades. Both sets of piers are moulded Pevsners B-type but the arcade characters are different. The south aisle arcade, probably the earlier, has moulded caps to the shafts only (more Somerset in character) whereas the north aisle arcade has carved capitals (more Devon in character). The western-most arch of the south arcade (in from the doorway) includes a couple of carved royal? heads and the pier has an image niche. The rood stair is open and complete. The inner arches of the windows are moulded Beerstone but the walls are otherwise plastered. Floor of patterned C19 tiles in the nave and aisles also including some good black marble graveslabs of C17 and C18 date. The Bluett Chapel is completely floored with graveslabs. C19 encaustic tiles are included in the chancel, the most ornamental ones reserved for the sanctuary. Late C19 carved Beerstone reredos enriched with marble and Gothic in style. Contemporary piscina nearby in north wall. Late C19 altar rail on twisted brass standards, oak stalls in Gothic style with poppyhead finials, oak pulpit and lectern, plain pine benches with children's pews to rear, and Beerstone font richly carved in Perpendicular style. The Bluett chapel is enclosed by reused sections of a good C15 oak rood or chapel screen; panelled wainscotting Perpendicular tracery (Pevsner's type B) and delicately-carved frieze. This, known as the Walrond Screen, was rescued from Tiverton Church and removed here in 1854. Nothing remains of the rood screen belonging to this church except for a couple of panels incorporated into the Bluett pew. This Bluett family pew is a most remarkable example of early C17 craftsmanship. It is much restored but the form is that of the original. Built of oak it comprises small field panelled wainscotting below richly carved arcade with a crest incorporating 10 medallions carved with scenes from Genesis and Exodus. Memorials: the church contains a notable group of monuments, the best belonging to members of the Bluett family. The oldest are the 2 in the Bluett Chapel. One in memory of Richard and Mary Bluett (d. 1614 and 1613) is marble and depicts Richard reclining on one elbow above the figure of his wife. The other, larger and more classical commemorates Sir John Bluett (d. 1634) in armour and his wife Elizabeth (d. 1636) and at the base are the carved figures of their 8 daughters. Alongside in the north aisle a polychrome marble mural monument in memory of the Reverend Robert Bluett (d. 1749) which shows a bas relief of the Good Samaritan with a large urn above. In the chancel another large marble mural monument featuring 2 allegories sitting each end of a sarcophagus and vase. It was erected in 1783 and commemorates Robert and Kerenhappuch Bluett and outlines the history of their family but gives no dates. Other good Beerstone and marble mural monuments from the C18. Some late C19 stained glass and some earlier fragments in the tracery of the east window of the south aisle. Source: Devon SMR. Andrew Gabriel and Barbara Fletcher, A Short History of Holcombe Regis (1986).

Listing NGR: ST0564919026

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

95962

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Gabriel, A, Fletcher, B, A Short History of Holcombe Rogus, (1986)

End of official list entry

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