Details
BRIXHAM
SX9255 DREW STREET, Higher Brixham
1946-1/7/107 (South East side)
18/10/49 Church of St Mary the Virgin
(Formerly Listed as:
DREW STREET, Higher Brixham
(South East side)
Church of St Mary's, Higher Brixham)
GV II*
Parish church. C15, re-roofed by Ashworth in 1867, restored by
Tait & Harvey in 1905. Solid roughcast walls with some details
in exposed, squared and coursed red sandstone; other details
in limestone, probably from Beer. Slated roof with C19 crested
ridge-tiles.
Nave, N and S aisles, N and S transepts, chancel, N and S
chancel chapels, W tower, S porch. Stair turret at W end of
each aisle. Windows have Perpendicular tracery, nearly all of
it restored in C19; east window of N aisle retains original
Beer stone head-tracery. North window of N transept has wooden
intersecting tracery. Aisles, transepts and chancel chapels
battlemented; beneath the N aisle battlements is a string
course with 4 large gargoyles, that on the E possibly
medieval. N aisle has old Beer stone doorway with 4-centred
arch and hoodmould. West wall of N transept (Churston family
pew) has C19 stone doorway with pointed arch. Aisle
stair-turrets are polygonal, apparently post-dating the tower;
slightly differing from each other in design, but with
corbelled, battlemented tops; each has 2 weathered limestone
windows, a slit below and a quatrefoil above. Fixed to south
wall of S transept a stone sundial with rounded top, this
filled with a gilded face with sun rays instead of hair.
Tower in 3 tapering stages with set-back buttresses and
battlements. Series of 9 limestone slit stair windows up south
side of west face, some with square or pointed heads, some
quatrefoil-shaped. West doorway of medieval Beer stone,
heavily moulded and with pointed arch. Above it a large
pointed-arched window with C19 tracery. Second stage has a
2-light window with quatrefoil in the head, also restored;
above this is a single-light opening with red sandstone jambs
and cinquefoiled limestone arch, now containing a statue of
the Virgin Mary. At the base of the third stage is a small,
old limestone window with 2 pointed-arched lights. Immediately
above this is a large clock face, apparently of 1740 with
names of W Clarke and L Edwards, wardens. At top is a belfry
opening with 4 cinquefoiled lights under a square hoodmould.
North and south faces each have a large blocked window in
lowest stage. The south face has in addition second and
third-stage windows matching those on the west except that in
the upper one the arches are cinquefoiled. N, S and E sides
each have a belfry opening like that on the W, together with a
clock face added in 1931.
South porch is single-storeyed with diagonal buttresses and
battlements. Restored pointed-arched limestone doorway with
heavily-weathered holy water stoup to its right. Inside are
stone seats and a Beer stone lierne star vault springing from
corner shafts; centre boss carved with Virgin Mary flanked by
angels; further bosses at intersections. 2 carved with
animals, the rest with flowers. Original pointed-arched Beer
stone doorway into church; above it an inserted niche
containing C20 statue of Virgin Mary.
INTERIOR: nave and west end of chancel flanked by Beer stone
arcades of 5 depressed arches springing from ogee-moulded
pillars with attached shafts. Similar tower-arch. Small,
pointed-arched, chamfered red sandstone doorways to each of
the aisle stair turrets, that to north now blocked.
Ogee-headed Beer stone piscinas in chancel and N transept,
both with carved basins and stone shelves; that in chancel has
cusped arch carved with arms of Bishop Courtenay of Exeter
(1478-87). N transept (later converted to Churston family pew)
has screen of fluted wooden columns removed from former south
gallery of 1792; behind it is a low panelled, inlaid
partition.
Fittings: early C14 Beer stone font with octagonal base
buttressed by 3 grotesque animals; bowl carved with trefoiled
ogee crocketed arches; wooden Gothic font cover dated 1908.
Under the tower the original clock mechanism (now out of use)
of 1740, with maker's plate of William Stumbels, Totnes. Also
framed embroidered altar frontel made from early C15
vestments.
Monuments: stone coffin lid carved with cross. At either side
of chancel, piercing wall with chancel chapel, a late-medieval
stone tomb. That to N has quatrefoil-panelled base and carved
ogee canopy with traces of old paint; inscribed top of grey
stone, said to be for William Hille, vicar 1464-87. Tomb to S
also has panelled front; panelled interior with vaulted
canopy; no inscription, but in place of effigy an
early-medieval stone coffin lid. North chancel chapel has 3
ornate C17 monuments to the Upton family of Lupton. In south
chancel chapel a white marble monument of c1720 to Anne
Stucley, in the form of a cartouche with a pair of skulls at
the base; Cherry and Pevsner suggest Weston as the sculptor.
Glass: all but the north window of the N transept contain
Victorian or early C20 stained glass.
(The Buildings of England: Cherry B: Devon (2nd edition):
London: 1989-: 829).
Listing NGR: SX9212055119
