Church of St Mary the Virgin

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

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

383610

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Devon, (1989), 829

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.