Church of the Immaculate Conception
CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, SUMMERLAND STREET
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1385346
- Date first listed:
- 31-Dec-1973
- List Entry Name:
- Church of the Immaculate Conception
- Statutory Address:
- CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, SUMMERLAND STREET
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2004-06-20
- Reference:
- IOE01/12626/21
- 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:
- 1385346
- Date first listed:
- 31-Dec-1973
- List Entry Name:
- Church of the Immaculate Conception
- Statutory Address 1:
- CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, SUMMERLAND 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:
- CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, SUMMERLAND STREET
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 56146 32995
Details
BARNSTAPLE
684-1/5/227 SUMMERLAND STREET
31-DEC-73 BARNSTAPLE
(West side)
CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
II
Roman Catholic church; disused. 1844; opened 1855; probably by Gideon Boyce of Tiverton and completed by R.D. Gould of Barnstaple. Funded by Sir Bourchier Palk Wrey of Tawstock Court; contractor, Norman. Random rubble with ashlar dressings; slate roof with coped gables; cast-iron rainwater goods. Romanesque style. Once part of a complex including a priest's house (demolished). Aisleless church with apsidal chancel and 3-bay nave. EXTERIOR: round-headed windows with moulded architraves and cushion capitals to the shafts; moulded string at cill level. Bays defined externally as recessed panels with pilaster buttresses and corbelled dentil cornice. Apse has similar surface treatment but with chalice and other carved symbols in the cornice and a single window to each facet (windows blocked at time of survey); nave windows arranged as one triplet to each bay. W end has a coped gable with a toothed string parallel to the verges. Wheel window and 2 tall blind statue niches with engaged shafts and cushion capitals; gabled porch with segmental-headed doorway with decayed tooth moulding; 2-leaf door with diagonal boards and ornamental strap hinges. INTERIOR: Simple arched-brace roof springing from scalloped corbels. Semicircular chancel arch springs from carved shafts, the arch with 3 orders of moulding; plaster-vaulted chancel springing from attached shafts; coloured floor tiles to chancel. Simple Romanesque font with circular stem and scalloped shaft. Late Cl9 Romanesque circular pulpit with semicircular niches with symbols of the Evangelists on the drum on a polychromatic marble stem. Timber W gallery on timber posts with Romanesque capitals.
NOTE: The church was probably designed by Gideon Boyce of Tiverton. According to 'The Tablet' in 1846 Boyce was named as the architect, but when the church was opened in 1855 'The North Devon Journal' referred to "the late Mr Pugin" as having been the architect, and the architect R.D. Gould as having been responsible for its completion.
SOURCES: [1] Buildings of England: Pevsner N. & Cherry B.: Devon: PP.15I-2. [2] North Devon Journal, 1.11.55: Barnstaple. [3] The Tablet, 19.10.46).
Listing NGR: SS5614632995
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 485808
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Devon, (1989), 151-2
North Devon Journal in 1 November, (1955)
The Tablet in 19th October, (1946)
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 19-Jun-2026 at 01:09:48.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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