Details
CHULMLEIGH EAST STREET (north side)
SS 6814-6914
Chumleigh
7/55 Congregational chapel, including
20.2.67 front walls and iron railings
GV II*
Chapel. 1710, repaired in 1793 and again circa 1803-4, enlarged at west end in 1836
and at east end in 1933. Unrendered stone rubble. Hipped slate roof to chapel,
school-room addition with pedimented front gable end.
Plan: Chapel rectangular on plan with 1836 2-storey school room wing built at right-
angles to and projecting forward of the chapel at west end, creating overall L-shaped
plan. Low single storey vestry extension at west end.
Exterior: single storey chapel with galleries at west end and on south side.
School-room extension of 2 storeys. Chapel has large pointed arched windows to north
and south sides. C20 fenestration in C19 Gothick style. 2 windows at east end with
renewed lintels. Central gabled porch to south side with virtually semi-circular
arched doorway and a date tablet of 1710 in the gable. Small pointed arched window
above with a tablet below it bearing the date 1633, probably a C19 insertion.
Slate headstones mounted on front wall, to member of Sharp and Clerk family by Howell
to right of porch and to Mary Turner (d.1816) and children of Richard and Mary Howell
(signed Howell) to left, all early C19. School-room extension has pedimented front
gable end with Gothick segmental arched first floor window of 3 ogee-leaded lights.
Interior: chapel has a flat plaster ceiling and a raised ceiling above the early C19
west gallery, which has a panelled front with rounded projecting centre, on 4 turned
columns, early C19 clock on front with wooden case with Gothick traceried panel.
Smaller singing gallery over south entrance probably circa 1800, with rounded
panelled front supported on 2 turned timber columns, with some original seating and
slender staircase to west with vase finial to lower newel. Staircase at west end
giving access to gallery has late C17/early C18 turned balusters reused in the
remodelling of circa 1836. Pulpit, believed to have come from the parish church, has
octagonal drum with 3 heights of bolection-moulded panels, similarly panelled back-
board, and octagonal tester with shaped top supported by wrought-iron pendant and
dove finial, probably early C18 but incorporating some earlier material in the
canopy. Chapel seating replaced in 1882. 2 early C19 brass chandeliers of 6 and 8
branches. Early C18 Communion table with 4 baluster legs. Square iron tablet on
wall of lobby at west end, signed by Howell, with inscription 'The premises adjoining
the west end of this building were erected in 1836'. The school-room was "for the
education of children of any denomination, the other apartments are for the use of
either of the minister or school-master for the time being'.
Roof: original structure survives with 2 king-post trusses with braced principals,
the braces to the east truss stongly curved, and carrying double purlins and a
square-set ridge-piece.
Monuments etc: shields-of-arms on north wall, of 2 late C19 diamond-shaped wooden
panels, one inscribed "Arms of John Bowring who gave the ground" and "Arms of Lewis
Stuckley who built this chapel 1633". Also on north wall, monuments to John Cudmore
(d.1706), 12 years pastor in succession to Thomas Hart, with octagonal wooden tablet
surmounted by urn; Richard Darracott (d.1727), pastor, large oval medallion; William
Skinner (d.1826) and Roger Howell (d.1839) and others; on east wall to Rev. Thomas
Sharp 1858, 32 years pastor, on south wall to Rev. Joseph Hooker (d.1748), pastor;
descendent of John Hooker, the historian of Exeter. Rev. J. G. Cording A Short
History of the Congregational Church, Chulmleigh, Devon, Established 1633 (1933)
Listing NGR: SS6890814300
