The Parish Church of St Mary Magdalene
THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST MARY MAGDALENE, HIGH STREET
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1333984
- Date first listed:
- 30-Jun-1961
- List Entry Name:
- The Parish Church of St Mary Magdalene
- Statutory Address:
- THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST MARY MAGDALENE, HIGH STREET
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Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2003-01-08
- Reference:
- IOE01/09625/08
- Rights:
- © Mr Terence Harper. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1333984
- Date first listed:
- 30-Jun-1961
- List Entry Name:
- The Parish Church of St Mary Magdalene
- Statutory Address 1:
- THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST MARY MAGDALENE, HIGH STREET
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST MARY MAGDALENE, HIGH STREET
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Devon
- District:
- East Devon (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Stoke Canon
- National Grid Reference:
- SX 93956 98016
Details
STOKE CANON HIGH STREET SX 99 NW 3/41 The Parish Church of St Mary 30.6.61 Magdalene GV I Parish church. Late C15 west tower, the remainder of 1835-6 by Mason, comprising nave, south porch and chancel. Coursed stone. West tower, tall with very slender proportions, a rather extreme form of a local characteristic. 2 stages, tall plinth the string course of which forms the west doorway hood mould. North semi- octagonal stair turret takes up half the side elevation. Corner buttresses with 3 off-sets; 4-light Perpendicular west window with traces. 2-light belfry openings, trefoil-headed with quatrefoil moulded battlements with pinnacle stollings. Mason's church is typical of its date, a tall battlemented preaching box with a shallow chancel. 3 wide bays to nave with 3-light Perpendicular style windows separated by buttresses twice weathers. Porch set dead centre of south side. East window might retain medieval work. Internally: tower arch, 2 orders, responds with wave moulding. Nave, 5 bays, heavy moulded wooden tie-beams and collars with large cusping. The best part of the 1820s work is the chancel panelling; arcade of pointed, cusped bays divided by buttresses, with battlemented cornice, all in South Devon limestone. The east bays contain commandment panels, and a central painting of Christ Crowned with Thorns by King of Bristol (1841). Fittings: exceptionally interesting Norman font. Circular bowl with 4 attached (much defaced) shafts supported by caryatids (or atlantes) who grip a cable moulding that divides bowl and shaft. Exposed faces of bowl with varied interlacing designs that are strongly pre-Norman in feel. Attached to shaft (between the caryatids) stand 4 figures, 1 (to north) holding a book, another (to west) a staff. A substantial number of medieval bench ends and bench backs, the rest by Edward Ashworth (1875). Semi- octagonal pulpit, wooden, Jacobean with arched panels and fluted muntins. South wall: monument to Elizabeth Paterson, died 1650. Corinthian colums to either side of epitaph, with heraldic device above. It appears to have lost its entablature. North wall: monument to Samuel Hall, not dated, C17, architrave and entablature, with putti faces and heraldic crest. Some 1830 fragments of painted glass in west window. Belfry not inspected. Sources: Pevsner, SO, 271; Devon C19 Churches Project; re font in TDA, 45 (1913)
Listing NGR: SX9396098017
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 86099
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: South Devon, (1952), 271
Transactions of the Devonshire Association in Transactions of the Devonshire Association, (1913)
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 24-Jun-2026 at 22:54:17.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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