Parish Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Details

SX 98 SE LYMPSTONE CHURCH ROAD (north side), Lympstone 5/13 Parish Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary 30.6.61 - II*

Parish church. The church was being rebuilt in 1329 when the dedication was postponed; dedicated by Bishop Stafford in 1409 when described as "de novo constructam". If normal practice was followed the tower would have been the last part of the church to be rebuilt, and it shares some striking similarities with that at nearby Woodbury which can be confidently dated to 1407-9. Chancel lengthened by Burgess in circa 1830. Largely rebuilt (with the exception of the tower, the north arcade which was re-cast, and the chancel arch) by Edward Ashworth, 1864-7; organ chamber and vestry by R.M. Fulford, 1889. Coursed sandstone rubble, with limestone banding to south; slate roofs. West tower, nave, north and south aisles, south- porch, chancel, south chancel chapel, north east vestry and organ chamber. West tower: 3 stages; south-west polygonal stair turret; all battlemented; the turret openings alternating lancet and quatrefoil; gargoyles to parapet stringcourse. Set-back buttresses, 3 set-offs. 2-light painted belfry openings to all sides. 2 pairs of ringing-chamber windows to south, are set above the other (cf. Woodbury), with a C19 clock placed between them. 4-light C19 Perpendicular west window and west doorway. Weathervane, C18. South side: 5-bay south aisle, the porch with diagonal buttresses, creeping animals to the set-offs, moulded doorway arch with terminals, all C19. Windows, also C19, 3-light conventional Perpendicular, which do not copy the rather unusual tracery design of the original visible in Spreat's engraving of the 1830s. South chancel chapel with 3 tall lancets. 3-light C19 Perpendicular windows to east and west of the aisle, 4-light to main east window. 2-light south chancel window. North side: north aisle, west window by Ashworth with Atherington-type tracery set above a door with ogee arch, under square-headed label with quatrefoils in spandrels; otherwise 5 bays, conventional C19 Perpendicular; organ chamber with parapet and 2-light ogee-headed windows with transom; vestry, gable-ended, aligned north-south, with square-headed 2-light window and door to west. Interior: 5-bay arcades, that to north supposed to be medieval, but entirely re-cut in the 1860s; that to the south entirely Ashworth's; all wavy-moulded section with foliage capitals. Tower arch, chamfered, the soffit panelled. Chancel arch, wavy moulded section with foliage capitals, largely restored. Wide, depressed double- chamfered arch connects chancel with south chapel; with a bressumer above. Arch- braced roof to nave; ceiled panelled roofs to chancel and aisles. Font: a Norman bowl with an unusual moulding (a hybrid cable-imbricated) much damaged and no longer in use. Monuments: a good, unsigned mural monument now in tower (north wall), to Nicholas Lee, mayor of Exeter, d.1759, memorial inscription with cornice and pediment, apron with putti, portrait bust above. White marble memorial wall slab, north aisle, north wall to Francis Drake, d.1722. Glass: the church possesses a good and varied set of C19 glass, by several makers and ranging in date from the 1840s to the early C20. The most notable are: south chancel chapel east, by Clayton & Bell, 1867; south aisle, south-east, to Mary Peters; south aisle, south to Lt.Gen.Lennox; south aisle south, Birch memorial, by Jennings, 1900; south aisle, west (baptistry), north aisle, west, to Frances Peters; north aisle, north, Marshall memorial, 1884; north aisle, west, Macdonald memorial (Ascension)

Listing NGR: SX9928884272

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

88513

Legacy System:

LBS

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