Church Heritage Record 615004

Cruciform plan church. The nave is taller than the chancel and transepts. The north transept contains the Rolle Pew and the north porch alongside gave the family their own entrance. Tower over the end of the south transept which also includes the vestry. South porch towards west end of the nave.

Nave 18m (60ft) long, 6m (19ft) wide, chancel 20m (34 ft) long.

Bechatona can be found in the Domesday Book, the manor is recorded as is a priest, so there may have been a church here or nearby.  The manor was given by William I to William Portitor, in return for his holding the office of Gatekeeper of the Prison at Exeter Castle. The estate passed into the possession of the Rolle dynasty, probably from the late 16th century. The present Georgian house was constructed c1800 for 1st Lord Rolle by J Wyatt, and remodelled and enlarged in 1908-9 by Walter Tapper.

The estate was sold and the Bicton Farm Institute was founded in 1947, Devon County Council purchased the House and Estate in 1956. Since 1993 the House is an independent Agricultural College controlled by a Board of Governors.  The landscaped gardens are a private visitor attraction which includes the church. However, the family still owns (or is responsible for) the Mausoleum and perhaps the rest of the old church ruin.

The “old” church of the Holy Trinity was built or rebuilt in the 13th century – Rectors are recorded from 1280 – of which building the tower, south wall and 15th-century south chapel, converted into a mausoleum for the Rolle family by A W N Pugin, remains. Pugin was given a free hand in designing the mausoleum and the result, though small, is very important being a complete conceived scheme. Part of the remains of the old church, with the exception of the Mausoleum but apparently including the standing south wall and the tower, is a Scheduled Monument. The rationale for this is rather unclear. It would appear that the Medieval cross base is not so designated, which is unusual.

The rest was demolished and a completely new church and lych-gate was erected in 1848-51 just to the east by Lady Rolle in memory of her husband John, the architect being John Hayward of Exeter, designer of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum and St Luke’s College in that city. This 'new' church is St Mary's.

This is a very fine church indeed, designed in its totality by John Hayward, a pioneer architect of the Ecclesiological Movement, in the Decorated Gothic style. It is a good early and complete example of a church which adheres to their principles. In addition to this Augustus Welby Pugin was employed to 'create' the ruin out of the old church and to convert its south chapel into the Rolle family Mausoleum, and this combination of architects, the vision behind the complex, and its place in the designed landscape raises it beyond the individual buildings and features to a whole of exceptional architectural and art historical signficance.

The Victorian church is cruciform in plan, with the tower rising from the north transept. It is of three stages with angle buttresses terminating below the belfry. The parapet is open and contains cusped tracery over a moulded frieze containing a series of carved gargoyle heads. Large pointed 2-light belfry openings with tracery filled with a stone lattice of quatrefoil shapes. The stair turret projects a little from the south-west corner and its stone roof hips into the walls at belfry level. Its chamftered corner splays out to a square corner just above the upper string course. It has small quatrefoil lights and an external door on the west side, a segmental pointed arch with the string course carried over as a hood. It contains a plank door at floor level.

On the west side the lower stage contains 2 trefoil-headed lancets, one over the other. The south side has an oculus with tracery in the middle stage, a trefoil-headed lancet towards the top of the lower stage and, at the bottom, a 2-centred arch priests doorway with moulded surround and the string course carried over as a hood. On the east side of the tower the lower stage includes a segemental pointed arched 2-light window. There is a chamfered plinth round the church. A short distance above this is a moulded string course and there is another above that at sill level. Like the plinth these follow round the buttresses. All around the church are iron gutters with embossed fleur-de-lys on the sides and a crenellated top. All the gables have shaped kneelers, some enriched with carved heads, coping and fleuree finial crosses. The west end has angle buttresses.

A distinctive and almost unique feature of this church is the carving of royal heads on the labels and on the kneelers, which form a complete series of the monarchs of England in order from Edward I, beginning immediately right of the south porch. Some are very distinctive, such as Philip and Mary on the north transept. Queen Elizabeth is in the corner just above. Lord and Lady Rolle (and Oliver Cromwell) can be found in the north porch. The north windows of the nave have the Stuarts to William and Mary, the Georges on the west end, and the series is completed by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert on the south porch. This theme is carried into the interior with the Divines of the English Church, all by J Dudley of London.

The transept to right has a single lancet with tracery. There are lancets each end with cusped tracery and a large oculus towards the top. On the south side there is another lancet at the left end. Then the porch; it is gable ended with low diagonal buttresses and small trefoil-headed windows in the side walls. The outer arch is 2-centred with a moulded surround and half-engaged shafts with moulded caps and bases. Above the arch is a sunken trefoil panel containing the date 1850. To the left are two 3-light windows with Decorated tracery separated by a buttress and, at the right end, another lancet with cusped tracery.

The interior preserves the 1851 scheme in its entirety and everything is of very high quality. The south porch as a stone flagged floor and a scissor-braced open roof. The south doorway is a pointed arch with a moulded surround, plank door with Gothic-style wrought iron strap hinges; the ironwork is of good quality throughout.

Entering the church properly, the nave has an open 8-bay roof of king-post trusses with moulded arch-braces springing from stone corbels carved as human heads, representing the Divines of the English Church. There is a moulded stone cornice along the wall top. The roof is backed by pine boards. The transepts and chancel have boarded vaults with moulded ribs and carved boss over the crossing. Here is the same moulded stone cornice and more carved stone corbles, the largest in the church in each corner of the crossing. The chancel arch is a moulded stone arch with clustered column responds, carved foliate caps and a hoodmould with carved angels on the labels. The windows have chamfered rere-arches.

The walls are plastered. The tiled floor includes patterns of Minton tiles, the floor of the crossing is bordered with these and features a panel of the Royal Arms and the initials VR repeated around. A marble step up to the sanctuary has tiles featuring the Rolle Arms and insignia and the sanctuary floor itself is rich with Minton tiles featuring symbols of the Evangelists amongst others. The furniture is of oak and Gothic style, good quality. The benches in the nave are plainer than the others with blind tracery on the ends and moulded tops. The Rolle pew in the north transept and stalls in the south transept have blind arcades to the frontals and carved tracery and poppyhead finials on the bench ends. There are relocated slabs to the Rev Glubb (d 1797) and his family in the chancel.