Church Heritage Record 615052

Cruciform church. West tower, 3-bay clerestoried nave with north porch and south aisle. Transepts (south transept with gallery). Chancel.

[Approximate] Nave 11m (36ft) x 5m (16ft), south aisle 3.5m (11½ ft) chancel 6.5m (21ft)

The Manor of Poltimore was mentioned in the Domesday Survey of 1086. The Bampfylde family owned Poltimore since it was bequeathed by a canon of Exeter Cathedral in 1298. The first Poltimore Manor was not built until the 1550s by Richard Bampfylde, it then remained with the family until the early 20th century.

The Devon and Dartmoor HER reveals records for Prehistoric or Roman enclosures seen as cropmarks within 500 metres of the site. Byzantine copper coins and Roman coins have also been recorded nearby. The fossilised footprint of an ancient animal were also found in a nearby quarry.

John Bampfylde built the church in the 14th century, though the priest’s board records a vicar in 1259 (earlier church on the site?). A door in the tower dates to the 14th century. Additions and alterations have been made throughout the centuries. The architect Robert Medley Fulford [1845/6-1910] restored the church 1879-82 which included repairing the chancel arch and opening the squints to either side. In 1884 he returned to add a 2-bay south arcade and doubled the number of clerestory windows. A brass plaque in the south-west corner records their introduction by the parish in 1882-3.

A churchyard extension was presented by Baron Poltimore in 1909 as recorded by a plaque on the east churchyard wall.

The archaeological potential of the site is considerable. There are no known designations relating to the ecology of the plot, though it contains some mature trees and is within the Devon Redlands National Character Area.

St Mary the Virgin sits in a cluster at the centre of Poltimore, with abutting thatched cottages and an almshouse. Its local red stone blends with the character of the landscape and its irregular forms, arrangement of windows and buttresses and irregularities in building fabric create interest and variety, evoking curiosity as to the building’s evolution.

A two-stage unbuttressed west tower with crenelated parapet has a 14th century door set within a moulded surround to the west side with a two-light window above and a semi-circular stair-turret attached to the south side. The tower is attached to the nave, also with crenelated parapet and a low pitched roof behind, and regularly distributed small trefoil-headed clerestory windows. A small gabled porch projects to the north side and to its east a north transept with plain parapet. To the south the aisle and transept project out, the transept slightly further, both with crenelated parapets. The chancel has a higher pitch to the roof with coping stones, shaped kneelers and a stone cross finial to the east gable.

The windows are beneath square-headed surrounds unless otherwise stated. The north nave has a two-light cinquefoil headed window to the west side of the porch. The north transept has a 2-light pointed window to the north, and two-light cinquefoil headed window to the east. The north of the chancel, which has the boiler house beneath has a 2-light pointed window with new stone surrounds and a blind cinquefoil headed window under square surround to the east. The east elevation is pierced by a 3-light pointed window. In the south wall are two 2 single-light cinquefoil-headed windows with a central 2-light pointed window placed above a door. There are two low stone buttresses beneath. The south transept has a door and a 2-light window with a 2-light trefoil-headed window on the east side. The south aisle has a 2-light window in the south wall and single light in the west elevation.

The interior is accessed from the north porch into which there are two steps down. There are a further two steps down into the church. Inside is a level floor with fixed oak benches with carved ends by Harry Hems, 1882 [Hems, 1842-1916, was based in Exeter. Hems commissioned Medley Fulford to build him new studios in 1881-2, now the Harry Hems Centre]. Stone tiles are laid in the aisles, interspersed with the occasional ventilation grate, with wood blocks under the pews. Boards are laid around the font in the north-west corner. The base of the tower is accessed beneath a high plain tower arch at the west end. The floor is paved in black and white (limestone and slate) and encaustic tiles.

The roof is formed by lath and plaster, with exposed timbers resting on carved corbels of angels bearing armorials related to the Bampfields, positioned half-way down between each clerestory window. Spotlights are also positioned here to light the nave. The 2-bay south aisle arcade is supported on octagonal piers with attached shafts. A single brass lamp (with an inscription recording its presentation by Lady Florence Poltimore in memory of a child, Marcia) hangs by the south door next to a stairway leading up to the gallery in the south transept.

The south transept, beneath a shallow arch, has an inserted gallery. Beneath is the family chapel seated with pews, with a plain flat ceiling and plastered and painted walls. The main feature is a substantial effigy beneath the window against the south wall. A stone slab in the adjacent floor is dated 1629. An exposed stone piscina is located within the east wall, evidence of an earlier chapel. The upper level has a decorative Gothic plastered flat-roofed ceiling with floriated bosses and carved angel corbels. The space is now used for storage and as a vestry, cupboards hide a former fireplace. Views out into the nave from the gallery are at the height of the clerestory, from where the angels in the stained glass, corbels and the carved angel above the chancel arch can be appreciated in their number.

The north transept, beneath a low arch, has a flat roof. It is seated with pews, has a piscina in the east wall (again evidence of early use as a chapel) and a hatchment on the west. A large hagioscope pierces the corner of the wall looking through onto the chancel, this is matched on the south side too.

The chancel is raised by a step and entered through a very attractive carved screen with canopies and vine detailing, set beneath a very high chancel opening. A carved wood angel hangs over the top. The ceiling of the chancel is shallow with decorative main timbers. The floor is laid with encaustic tiles and ledger stones including one inscribed ‘here lyeth John Bampfield, d.1650’. Other ledger stones, both in the chancel floor and between the transepts, indicate the possibility of burials beneath. Choir stalls, carved by Harry Hems, sit to either side. A brass crown-shaped candelabra (once to the west side of the screen) hangs from the centre. An organ was once situated against the north wall where there is a three-bay stone sedilia. Door to south. There is a further step up to the sanctuary where the floor is laid in a pattern consisting of quarry, marble and decorative encaustic floor tiles. Piscina to south.