Details
CHRISTOW CHRISTOW
SX 88 NW
2/88 Church of Saint James the Apostle
30.6.61
GV I
Parish church. C12 font, medieval fabric C15, restoration of 1862 by Edward
Ashworth included rebuilding the chancel, the porch, adding the vestry, reseating and
repairing and repainting the screen. Granite ashlar tower, the remainder of the
church rubble and snecked stone ; slate roofs. Largely Perpendicular.
Plan: of nave, chancel, 4-bay north and south aisles, south porch, west tower north-
east vestry. C19 chancel with granite ashlar quoins set back buttresses, 3-light
C19 Perpendicular east window with carved label stops, 1 buttress on the south side
which has a C19 moulded priest's door and a 1-light cusped window with carved label
stops; similar north window to chancel ; north-east vestry with 2-light cusped square
headed window on the east side and a moulded doorway on the north side. North aisle
with set back buttresses and buttresses with set-offs between the 4 C19 Perpendicular
3-light windows retaining medieval mullions and jambs ; similar east window ; 2-light
square-headed cusped west window. South aisle with set back buttresses 2 windows
east of porch, one to west, Perpendicular, 3-light with C19 tracery ; smaller west
window ; tall 3-light C19 Perpendicular east window. Tall slim battlemented granite
ashlar west tower of 3 stages with battlementing and obelisk pinnacles, set back
buttresses and string courses. Shallow-moulded granite west doorway dated 1680
(presumably a restoration date) on the arch ; 3-light Perpendicular granite traceried
west window ; 2-light chamfered belfry openings on all 4 faces ; rectangular openings
at bellringers' stage on east and west faces. Porch with set back buttresses and a
shallow moulded granite outer doorway with NB carved on one jamb, C19 hoodmould and
carved label stops, good ledger stone used as paving slab outside porch,
commemorating Nicholas and Walter Busell, died 1631 and 1632 ; C19 arched brace roof
to porch with crude chamfered rounded inner doorway and probably C17 door.
Interior: Plastered walls ; C19 timber chancel arch on brattished corbels ; 4-bay
granite arcades of conventional Perpendicular design; double chamfered tower arch,
the inner order on stone corbels. Ceiled wagon roofs with carved bosses to nave,
similar C19 roof to chancel, ceiled wagons without bosses to north and south aisles.
5-bay rood screen, (Pevsner 'A'type), the coving missing, re-painted in the C19. 3-
bay of the screen, formerly across the south aisle, have been re-sited as the tower
screen. 1860s stone reredos of 5 gabled bays with texts and paintings on tin in the
centre 3 bays, co-eval floor tiling and C19 poppyhead choirstalls with traceried
fronts. The nave has a late C19 timber drum pulpit with carved panels incorporating
C16 blind tracery ; C12 font with a square scalloped bowl on a replaced cylindrical
stem and plinth. C16 square-headed bench ends with 2 tiers of blank tracery, one
carved with a pomegranate, fixed to later seating in the aisles with low door added
in the C19. Plain C19 benches in the nave except for 2 rows facing north and south
with carved frontals. 1682 Royal Arms in plaster in high relief with the names of
Tho Moore and Chr Moore, churchwardens, below.
Memorials: Numerous C19 wall white marble wall monuments to the Exmouth family in the
chancel, 2 of 1833 signed E. Gaffin, Regent Street, London : one to the Right
Honourable Pownoll Bastard Pellew with a mourning woman ; the second commemorating
the Right Honourable Edward Pellew with a sarcophagus, urn and laurels framed by half
columns, naval trophies above and long verse below recording Pellew's rescue of 500
people from the wreck of the 'Dutton' ...." so, when this mighty orb, in dread
alarm,/ shall crash in ruins, at its God's decree;/May thy redeemer, with triumphant
arm,/ from the vast wreck of all things - rescue thee"/. The nave has a number of
C19 wall monuments and 2 fine slate-cut ledger stones fixed to the west and north
walls commemorating Edmund Davis, died 1652 and John Davys died 1682.
Stained Glass: Fragments of C15 canopy work and a figure in the easternmost window of
the south aisle ; some C18 bottle glass in the head tracery of the north aisle ;
Outstanding Clayton and Bell glass, memorial date 1862, in the east. window of the
south aisle ; chancel east window probably by Drake of Exeter, memorial date of 1899
glass by Ward and Hughes in the window in the south aisle, first bay from the east,
memorial date of 1913. Window in north aisle, opposite the door, with memorial date
of 1867, probably by William Wailes.
Devon Nineteenth Century Churches Project.
Listing NGR: SX8361485041
