Church of St Michael and All Angels

Details

SS 90 SW CADBURY 8/38 Church of St Michael and All Angels 5.4.66 GV I Parish church. C12 font ; tower possibly C13 (q.v. Bickleigh): circa early C16 north aisle ; restoration of circa 1840 ; further restoration of 1857 by William White. Volcanic trap rubble with freestone (mostly Bathstone) dressings ; asbestos slate roofs ; C19 crested ridge tiles to nave and chancel. Plan of nave, chancel, west tower, 4-bay north arcade (1 bay to the chancel), south porch. The development of the church is not clear but it may have been a nave and chancel church with west tower in the C13, extended by a 4-bay aisle in the circa early C16. The porch is also early C16 origin. In 1843 the east and tower windows were described as "New" as were the altar and communion rails. The chancel roof may also date from the same phase. In 1857 William White rebuilt the south wall, replaced the north side windows and replaced the nave roof. The chancel has an east gable coped with Ham Hill and crowned with a cross, a 3-light circa 1840 Perpendicular east window with a hoodmould. The two south windows are both William White : one cinquefoil-headed light to the east and a 2-light Decorated style window to the west. Between them is a characteristically William White feature; a narrow priests' door inserted in a wide buttress with set-offs. The doorway is chamfered and stopped with a pointed segmental arch with a 2 plank door with strap hinges. To the east of the porch the nave has a William White window with 3 flush trefoil-headed lights, similar 2-light window to the west of the porch. The north aisle has coped north and south gables crowned with crosses and 3-light 1840 north and south windows, the east window with a hoodmould. The north side windows are 1857 by William White as is the C19 buttress with set- offs. The windows are asymmetrically-placed ; two 3-light windows with trefoil- headed lights and a similar 1-light window to the west. 3 stage unbuttresed, battlemented west tower without pinnacles or string courses. The tower is slightly battered with a large projecting rectangular north stair turret with slit windows. The tower has similarities to Bickleigh (q.v.) although the battlementing has been rebuilt. The west face has a volcanic trap shallow-moulded doorway with a pointed segmental arch, cushion stops and a C19 plank and cover strip door with strap hinges. 3-light circa 1840 Perpendicular west window with a hoodmould; 2-light belfry opening, the lintel a C19 replacement giving trefoil-headed lights, the original probably being cinquefoil-headed, the form of the belfry opening on the north face. The belfry openings on the east and south faces are granite with 2 segmental arched lights. The south face has a cinquefoil-headed opening at bellringers' stage. The porch has a coped gable, crowned with a cross and flush buttresses with set-offs; double-chamfered 2-centred doorway in volcanic trap, the inner order dying into the walls. The interior of the porch has timber-topped benches and a circa early C16 2- bay arch braced roof with moulded purlins and a collar purlin, the southernmost truss is a C19 replacement. Moulded 2-centred inner doorway in volcanic trap with cushion stops, door probably C20 but incorporating an earlier lock box. Interior Plastered walls; timber chancel arch formed by the abutment of the nave and chancel roofs ; plain tower arch with panelled soffit. Black and red C19 tiled dado. The 4-bay arcade has been painted but is probably Beerstone with shallow-moulded Tudor arches, piers with corner shafts and good, varied carved capitals. The aisle roof is probably early C16, a keeled unceiled waggon with the principal ribs moulded. The chancel roof, possibly circa 1840, is of similar design but with a carved wallplate and carved bosses. William White's 3-bay nave roof is arch braced with a collar purlin and collars between the common rafters which have diagonal boarding behind them. The easternmost truss, which forms the chancel arch, is carried on painted wooden posts on corbels. Numerous fittings of interest. The reredos is said to be 1890 (Church Guide, n.d.) but looks earlier : perhaps it is 1840 with later marble embellishments. It extends the width of the east end with gabled commandment boards to left and right and a central nodding ogee flanked by blind arcading. Polychromatic marble to the niches includes a corbel to support an altar cross. Stone credence table supported on a marble demi-angel. The floor tiling includes memorials to members of the Coleridge family and is probably 1857 ; timber Gothic communion rail of 1840. The altar, in situ in 1843 (Davidson), is made up of fine minutely-traceried panels, probably C16 and unlikely to be of English craftsmanship. The choir has some interesting stalls made up of a mixture of medieval and C19 bench ends; 1 bench end is especially interesting, shouldered with a crocketted head and carved with intersecting tracery very similar to the notable set at Atherington is North Devon. Unusual C17 lectern originally from Ottery St Mary (Cresswell) with strapwork decoration and a turned stem. Stone drum pulpit, possibly circa 1840, decorated with blind arches. Unusual, probably C12 volcanic trap font with a square bowl, scallopped underneath on a round stem with decoration on the plinth. The stem and plinth are C19. The font cover, circa 1840, clearly not designed for the present font, has an ogival profile and is carved with blind tracery. The benches in the nave are utilitarian C19 with rectangular ends. The east end of the south aisle is a family pew screened off by a low early C19 Gothic screen. A number of interest monuments. In the floor at the east end of the south aisle 3 ledger stones of the early C17 including a particularly fine one commemorating George Fursdon, died 1643, which includes armorial bearings in relief and a verse "Bee dumbe thou influence of officious verse/Fursdon esquier lyes veild within this herse/Twoold bee to rude an insolence to his shrine/too cloathe transcendent merit with a line"/. Early C19 grey and white marble wall monument on the north wall of the chancel to George Fursdon, died 1837, signed E. Gaffin, Regent St. London. Late C18 grey and white marble obelisk wall monument in the aisle to Charles Hale, died 1795, with a long inscription on a white marble sarcophagus. Also in the aisle a white marble wall monument to Elizabeth Lyon, died 1789, signed Kendall, Exon : an obelisk with a draped urn. Several other C19 wall monuments. Important late C15 stained glass in the east window of the north aisle, moved from the east window. A central figure of Christ showing his wounds was clearly originally part of a 7 sacraments design by the Doddiscombsleigh atelier of glass painters and is the largest single surviving figure from the workshop outside Exeter Cathedral. The flanking lights are probably by the Hardman company who provided 2 windows in the north aisle and 1 in the south aisle. Westernmost window in the south aisle by Clayton and Bell with a memorial date of 1877. Chancel windows by Beer of Exeter. A chest in the vestry (curtained off at the west end of the aisle) is said to be 1606 (Cresswell) and retains some painted decoration. A fine Church with notable glass and a good restoration by William White. Davidson, "Church Notes East of Devon", MS is West Country Studies Library, pp. 493- 498 Cresswell B., "Notes on Devon Churches, Deanery of Tiverton ; typescript in West Country Studies Library Devon Nineteenth Century Churches Project Illustration of the Church in 1842 in W. Spreat, Picturesque Sketches of the Churches of Devon (1842)

Listing NGR: SS9109104943

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

437165

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Cresswell, B F, Notes on Devon Churches in the Deanery of Tiverton, ()
Spreat, W, Picturesque Sketches of the Churches of Devon, (1842)

Other
Davidson, Church Notes East of Devon,

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