Church of St John the Baptist

Details

HOLCOMBE BURNELL HOLCOMBE BURNELL SX 89 SE 4/76 Church of St John the Baptist

GV II*

Parish church. Part of south doorway C12, arcade probably late Clslearly C16 tower probably late C15, substantial rebuilding and enlargement of 1843 by John Hayward. Stone rubble including Heavitree and volcanic stone with granite and freestone dressings, tower rough cast on east west and south faces, north face with old render, slate roof. West tower, nave -and chancel with no external division, 4-bay north aisle, north east vestry, south west porch. Late Perpendicular style. The extent and character of the 1843 work makes it difficult to establish a dating sequence for the medieval period. Of the C12 church a rounded arched doorway survives; the tower is probably late Perpendicular. The granite piers of the north arcade could be C14 Decorated but are more likely to be late Perpendicular, the rounded double chamfered arches of the arcade have been described as "restored", but are similar to those at Exminster and Dunchideock. The 1843 work involved extending the chancel to the east, re-roofing, replacing window tracery (mostly in original embrasures) and largely rebuilding the north aisle which was described as "ruinous" in 1843 (Davidson). The vestry was added, the chancel was refurbished, and the church reseated, it has been reseated subsequently in the C20. The east wall of the chancel with a coped gable and diagonal buttresses is entirely 1843 although the 3-light east window with Perpendicular frees tone tracery and a hood-mould preserves the granite sill and jambs of the medieval east window. On the south side the nave is flush with the chancel, the south wall has two 1843 buttresses with set-offs and 4 square-headed 2-light windows with hood-moulds and cusped lights in original embrasures with granite sills and jambs. The 4 bay north aisle has two 1843 buttresses with set-offs and 3-light Perpendicular style traceried windows at the east and west ends, medieval sills and jambs intact. Three 3-light square-headed windows with trefoil-headed lights flush with the north wall are entirely of 1843. The north east vestry is gabled to the north with a stone gable end stack, plain chamfered doorway on the west wall, 1-light chamfered window on the east wall. The battlemented 2-stage west tower has diagonal west buttresses and single angle east buttresses with a battlemented polygonal north east stair turret rising above the tower battlementing, no pinnacles. A low shallow-moulded west doorway with a rounded arch below a 3-light Perpendicular style window with traceried lights and a hood- mould. The north and south faces have slit windows at bellringer's stage; the south window glazed, the north window shuttered. 2-light chamfered belfry openings on all 4 faces, the north face opening shuttered. The south west porch has a coped gable and shallow-moulded outer doorway with a rounded arch. The porch interior has a plain plastered roof and timber benches. The inner doorway is a rounded red sandstone arch, probably 1843, below a C12 Beerstone arch with carved heads at either end and a carved head keystone. Between the heads the arch is decorated with carved stone whorls. Interior Plastered walls, no internal nave/chancel division except for an additional rib in the roof and change in wall plate; unmoulded 2-centred tower arch springing from chamfered imposts; 1843 unceiled waggon roofs with moulded ribs and carved bosses (those in the nave recently painted). 4-bay north arcade, the easternmost bay narrower and lower with low octagonal granite monolith piers with chamfered capitals and rounded double-chamfered arches. The chancel has an interesting set of fittings: a crested stone screen of 1843 with blind trefoil-headed arcading on the east wall. In the centre, immediately above the altar, a stone panel is painted with an illuminated gilded text in Gothic script - an unusual survival of an early Gothic Revival feature. On either side of the east window the creed and commandments in panels with arched stone frames with gilded illuminated borders. The altar, said to be an adapted Elizabethan chest from Culver House (qv) has high quality panels of blind tracery under ogee arches between applied buttresses. On the north wall of the chancel there is a remarkable tomb. Both Pevsner and Cresswell describe it as an Easter sepulchre and tomb and there is some debate about its date and evolution. An ogee arched crocketted recess above a chest carved with 4 shields, flanked by tall buttresses, with a cornice above, and above the cornice a frieze of Renaissance arabesques of high quality with similar arabesques and putti in the spandrels above the ogee arch. On the rear wall, under the recess, a panel of carving in high relief represents the Resurrection and on either side of the panel shallower Renaissance carving of mermen and arabesques. Pevsner implies that the whole design is mid C16,Crewswell argues that the Renaissance detail was applied to an earlier Gothic design in the C16, when the Easter sepulchre was adapted as a memorial to the Dennis family. The buttresses flanking the tomb have clearly lost their pinnacles, the resurrection carving is probably not of English origin, and an account of the church in 1843, prior to the restoration, refers to 2 kneeling women on the chest. On the south side of the chancel a crested stone screen divided into 2 arched cusped panels by buttresses with pinnacles commemorates relations of Richard Stephens, died 1844, stone lettering in relief. 2 sections of the wainscot of a late medieval rood screen have been reused as a chancel screen, the wainscot panels have unusually good paintings of saints for the county, apparently by 2 different hands. The font is a late C15 10-sided bowl with quatrefoils carved in panels on a thick stem with trefoil-headed arcading. Ancient colour survives on the conical timber font cover. The pulpit, choir stalls and nave pews are all mid to late C20. Various C17 tomb slabs are incorporated in the paving of the church. In the north aisle an unsigned wall monument to Richard Stephens died 1831, is notable. On a large grey marble background a white marble inscription tablet with cornice, flanked by inverted torches, is crowned by a draped broken column. Fixed to a window sill in the north aisle is a small headless alabaster saint Peter with ancient colour; the quality of the carving is high and the date probably C14. The east window contains fragments of late medieval glass including a complete kneeling figure with a scroll "IHS fili david miserere mei". Border fragments also survive and 2 coats of arms, 1 is Dennis (qv Holcombe Burnell Barton) impaling a coat probably meant for Godolphin, the second is argent a chevron between 3 bulls' heads sable, countercharged. The pictorial glass can be attributed to the Doddiscombsleigh atelier. The Hayward work of 1843 in a sympathetic Perpendicular style is substantial and the chancel fittings, glass and font are of- especial interest. Pevsner, South Devon (1952). Beatrix Cresswell, Notes on the churches of the Deanery of Kenn (1912). Davidson, MS notes on the churches of South Devon, West Country Studies Library. Devon Nineteenth Century Churches Project.

Listing NGR: SX8587491600

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

400865

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Cresswell, B F, Notes on Devon Churches in the Deanery of Kenn, (1912)
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: South Devon, (1952)

End of official list entry

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