Church of St Michael

Details

DODDISCOMBSLEIGH PERRY LANE, Doddiscombsleigh SX 88 NE 3/129 Church of St Michael 30.6.61 GV I Parish church. C15, substantially rebuilt and restored in the late 1870s (church reopened 1879), architect Edward Ashworth of Exeter. Stone rubble with polychromatic detail to the 1870s north wall, bottom stage of tower dressed granite ; volcanic, freestone and granite dressings ; slate roof with crested ridge tiles. Plan: nave, chancel, west tower, 5-bay north aisle, south porch. The medieval work is Perpendicular but with some idiosycratic detail to the tower. The Ashworth restoration involved rebuilding the chancel and nave walls, re-roofing chancel and nave, repairing aisle roof, windows and arcade, re-dressing the tower arch and renewing the porch. Re-seating (nd.) by Harbottle. Exterior: 3-light C19 intersecting traceried east window to chancel with polychromatic banding to the east wall, east wall of aisle flush with chancel with a 3-light Perpendicular east window. On the south side the nave/chancel division is marked by a C19 buttress : shouldered moulded stone priest's doorway to chancel flanked by 2-light C19 windows with Y tracery, 2-light C19 Perpendicular window to the nave. The south wall is constructed of mixed colour masonry with limestone voussoirs to the windows and a similar relieving arch over the priest's door. The north aisle has 4 3-light Perpendicular windows with considerable C19 replacement of stonework with a single lancet to the west ; 2-light west window with 2 chamfered lancets. 3-stage battlemented west tower with obelisk pinnacles and unusually positioned buttreses, in the centre of the north and south faces. Small 1-light opening at bellringers' stage in east face ; 2-light arched chamfered openings to the belfry on all 4-faces ; shallow-moulded arched granite west doorway medieval 3-light granite Perpendicular west windows. Largely C19 porch on the south side with a cross on the gable, double-chamfered outer doorway, a chamfered granite inner doorway with pyramid stops and C19 door with strap hinges. The porch has a C19 moulded stopped arched brace roof. Interior: Outstanding for the C15 glass in the north aisle, the most complete scheme of medieval stained glass in Devon outside the Cathedral. Plastered walls ; slender timber chancel arch ; double-chamfered granite tower arch on big corbels ; painted, richly-moulded 5-bay Beerstone Perpendicular arcade with carved foliage capitals. Late 1870s moulded unceiled wagon to nave with carved foliage bosses; co-eval boarded wagon to chancel ; C15 keeled boarded wagon to aisle. The chancel has a C20 timber reredos by Wippell and Co of Exeter, a 1917 timber altar and a trefoil-headed aumbry. Nave with C18 cut down timber drum pulpit ; octagonal stone bowl to the font with an open traceried cover of 1901 : the bowl rests on what may a C12 font with cable moulding. C16 bench ends with blank quatrefoils above rounded blank arches, some fixed to later benches. Stained Glass: Chancel east window by Morris Drake, 1912. 2 chancel windows on south side probably Frederick Drake. Outstanding survival of late C15 stained glass in the north aisle by the Doddiscombsleigh atelier who were probably based in Exeter where they provided glass for the Cathedral. The scheme at Doddiscombsleigh has the remains of a text and armorial bearings suggesting the scheme celebrates a Chudleigh Dodscombe marriage. The 4 windows on the south side have single figures to each light the highest quality glass is in the iconographically interesting seven sacraments east window. The central figure of Christ was supplied by Clayton and Bell (the original figure was probably standing (q.v. Cadbury) ; stylized streams of blood from Christ's wounds link the central figure to lively scenes of the seven sacraments with notable domestic and costume detail. Clayton and Bell also restored the 4 windows on the south side. Memorials: wall monument in aisle to John Bibb, died 1647. Outstanding survival of medieval stained glass scheme. Devon Nineteenth Century Churches Project. Brooks, C.L. and Evans, D., unpublished notes on the stained glass of Doddiscombsleigh Church.

Listing NGR: SX8576286556

Legacy

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Legacy System number:

85652

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LBS

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