Church of St Peter and St Mary Magdalene including the Doddridge Library
Church of St Peter and St Mary Magdalene including the Doddridge Library, Paternoster Row, Barnstaple, Devon, EX311BL
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1385251
- Date first listed:
- 19-Jan-1951
- List Entry Name:
- Church of St Peter and St Mary Magdalene including the Doddridge Library
- Statutory Address:
- Church of St Peter and St Mary Magdalene including the Doddridge Library, Paternoster Row, Barnstaple, Devon, EX311BL
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2006-04-09
- Reference:
- IOE01/13230/25
- Rights:
- © Dr Barbara Hilton. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1385251
- Date first listed:
- 19-Jan-1951
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 29-Sept-1999
- List Entry Name:
- Church of St Peter and St Mary Magdalene including the Doddridge Library
- Statutory Address 1:
- Church of St Peter and St Mary Magdalene including the Doddridge Library, Paternoster Row, Barnstaple, Devon, EX311BL
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:
- Church of St Peter and St Mary Magdalene including the Doddridge Library, Paternoster Row, Barnstaple, Devon, EX311BL
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Devon
- District:
- North Devon (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Barnstaple
- National Grid Reference:
- SS 55833 33223
Details
This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 21 July 2022 to amend the name and address and to reformat the text to current standards
SS558332
684-1/8/209
BARNSTAPLE
PATERNOSTER ROW (North side)
Church of St Peter and St Mary Magdalene including the Doddridge Library
(Formerly Listed as: Church of St Peter including the Doddridge Library, previously Listed as: CHURCH LANE (West side) Church of SS Peter and Paul)
19/01/51
GV
II*
Parish church. Probably late C12 or early C13, enlarged 1318. Spire added 1388-9; Doddridge Library 1667. Restored by Gilbert Scott from 1866 onwards, and by JO Scott in the 1880s. Tower, nave and chancel of random stone rubble; aisles, chancel chapels and Doddridge Library of coursed rubble. Limestone details. Slated roofs. Ribbed leaded spire.
PLAN: nave: North and South aisles; North transept with tower in place of South transept; chancel; North and South chancel chapels; Doddridge Library adjoining North chancel chapel with entrance from Church Walk. Mostly Perpendicular windows restored in C19.
EXTERIOR: Tudor-arched windows in North aisle. C19 South door with pointed arch; above it a blank panel in old Perpendicular surround with cinquefoil arch. Smaller South chancel door of similar date; above it an octagonal sundial with gilt lettering, including date 1732. Twisted broach spire with louvred belfry openings; these have triangular pediments with ball finials, two of the pediments dated 1636. Higher up on the East and West side are small gabled canopies, that to East with two bells.
Doddridge Library has Tudor-arched doorway and three-light stone-mullioned window with cinquefoiled heads to the lights, both probably C19. Upper storey has two windows, each of three lights with restored ovolo-moulded wood mullions. Between them is a moulded plaque inscribed BIBLIOTHECA DODDRIDGIANA 1667. The front is finished with a pair of moulded string courses having ashlar masonry between them and above them a crenellated parapet carved with quatrefoils and the town arms.
INTERIOR: has C14-style nave and chancel arcades designed by Scott (carving by Harry Hems). Tower has two C14 pointed arches with quarter-round mouldings. Waggon roofs throughout, that to chancel boarded and with angels. Chancel and South chancel chapel have medieval niches with trefoiled heads, presumably piscinas originally; the second of these is unusual in having small side-niches with pointed heads.
FITTINGS: C19 Gothic pulpit and font, the former with re-set medieval Barnstaple tiles beneath it. Organ with Gothic case and painted pipes, 1882 by JO Scott. Stained-glass tower window by Clayton & Bell; W window by WF Dixon.
MONUMENTS: numerous C17 wall monuments, mostly to Barnstaple merchants; many have busts or whole figures in high relief. These include in North transept Thomas Horwood (d.1658), founder of the almshouses in Church Lane (qv).
BELLS: six by John Briant, 1803; two Barwell trebles added in 1897. Restored 1980.
Doddridge Library has part of a double-rib ceiling upstairs.
(The Buildings of England: Cherry B: Devon (2nd edition): London: 1989-: 150-1; The Ringing World: 1980-; Some notes on the Parish Church of St Peter, Barnstaple).
Listing NGR: SS5583333223
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 485713
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
The Ringing World, (1980)
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Devon, (1989), 150-151
Other
Some Notes on the Parish Church of St Peter, Barnstaple,
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 06-Jun-2026 at 12:08:36.
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