Church Heritage Record 615136

Nave of seven bays with galleried aisles; west tower; shallow apsidal chancel; There are rooms below the eastern parts of the building and the west tower acts as a porch also.

The church was built in 1837-8 to the designs of Charles Fowler. Fowler (1792-1867) was a local man, born at Cullompton and articled to John Powning of Exeter. In 1814 he went to London and joined David Laing and he began an independent practice in 1818. In 1822 he obtained first premium in the competition for the new London Bridge , but eventually his designs were set aside in favour of Rennie's. By 1830 he had become well-known as a result of his designs for Covent Garden Market and the great glazed conservatory at Syon House. He also designed markets at Gravesend, the Hungerford Market (London), Tavistock and Exeter. He remodelled the exterior of Powderham Castle in 1837-48 and was closely involved with the setting up of the Institute of British Architects, to whose transactions he contributed several papers. Many of his designs were shown at the Royal Academy.

The exterior is severe, but with considerable dignity, although the Norman details barely conceal the elementary squareness of its shape. The body of the church has tall round-headed windows along the side walls, one to each bay, and the bays are separated by shallow buttresses with a parapet on a corbel table running along the top. The windows have attached shafts each side and rise unbroken through two storeys. At the west end the bays flanking the tower have in the lower part round-headed doorways with nook-shafts and heads carved at the end of the hood-moulds and window with paired lights above. The pinnacles have been removed from the parapets here.

The tower, which projects beyond the west end of the nave, is of three decreasing stages - decreasing in height as well as in width. In the lowest is a tall recessed arch of four orders with cushion capitals to the attached shafts and this encloses a doorway with chevron moulding around the arch and a three-light window above, separated from the doorway by a band of arcading. The middle stage is divided into two sub-sections with tall arcading in the lower part and the clock face in the upper part with a corbel-table of small round arches. The top stage has two tall round-headed lights in each face with shafts having cushion capitals and blind arcading on a very small scale above. This is capped by a castellated parapet with stout pinnacles at the angles, each with a tapered top above a square body relieved by a recessed arch on each face. The tower has no buttresses but the upper two stages have pilaster strips at the corners, the topmost with the additional ornament of a shaft against the outer angles.

At the east end of the church, the east faces of the body of the building are blind although each has a small recessed arch near the base of the wall. Between these is set the semi-circular apse which houses the sanctuary, the bays divided by pilaster strips and with a corbel table at the head under a plain parapet. The windows are of the same design as those of the nave but less tall.

The interior of the church follows an arrangement familiar from the earlier type of "Commissioners Church", with a lobby in the base of the west tower and a west gallery across the first bay of the nave with access stairs at each side. The lobby has blind receased arches in the side walls and a plastered vault with roll-moulded stone ribs and a central circular ball-way. The side galleries are supported on iron pillars set behind the main pillars of the arcades so that they do not interfere with the architectural arrangement of the interior. The arcades themselves are of classical, not Norman proportions, and indeed have bases with typical Ionic mouldings standing on octagonal drums that were doubtless provided to raise them above the level of the original pews. Their capitals, with scalloped edges, are the only concession to Norman architecture, together with the token roll-mouldings along the two orders of the arches and the grotesque heads carved at the meeting of the arches. At the east end is a broad arch of roughly twice the width opening into the apse, and the two orders of this are carried on pairs of nook shafts. On the wall above is a large roundel containing the Royal Arms which may be of Coade stone. At the west end a plain arch opens to the tower; this is at present closed by boarding. The clerestory along the side walls has two lights to each bay with attached shafts on the inner face. The nave floor is of wood blocks and the ceiling, together with the roof above, was renewed about fifteen years ago. It is divided into plain plaster panels by strips painted with rectangular patterns. The aisle ceilings are original and are divided into panels by moulded ribs which are understood to be cast-iron and have no structural purpose.

The east bay of the nave is raised one step above the nave to form a chancel, and is separated from the north and south aisles by screens. The stone floor dates from 1909. On the north is the organ console, the pipowork being in the east bay of the gallery above, and on the south is a chapel. The apse therefore is left to provide the sanctuary, which is raised three further steps above the chancel. The bays of the wall are divided vertically by pillars in the corners and outlined by arches above which the plaster roof is shaped in the form of a lobed dome with moulded ribs spreading out from a small roof-light concealed behind the chancel arch. The lower parts of the walls, below the windows, are lined with arcading, and a later reredos stands behind the altar.