Church Heritage Record 615082

In its present, post-1881 arrangement, the church consists of a nave facing south towards a chancel, and is furnished as such. But the nave consists of three roughly parallel chambers separated by arcades (these are, reading from north to south, the original nave, a south aisle and an outer south aisle). From the east end of the original nave opens the original chancel, in 1881 made into a baptistery and now used as a storeroom, and within the west end of the nave the bell-turret is carried on a tall detached pillar. The 1881 chancel has an aisle on the liturgical south side housing the organ and a vestry.

The church is said to be one of the oldest in Exeter. The history of the present building begins at the north edge of the site with a nave and chancel which are probably twelfth-century in origin, though now much altered. In about 1413 a south aisle was built, and in 1513 an outer south aisle was added (called the Jesus aisle and consecrated by Thomas Chard, the last Abbot of Ford, acting for the aged Bishop Oldham, in 1513). The octagonal bell-turret was also added at this time. A further southward enlargement was made in 1587, and this outer-outer south aisle was extended westwards in 1828 to designs by Charles Hedgeland of Exeter (whose other known works are Manaton Rectory, 1825 ; the enlargement of the nave of South Molton Church, 1825-9; and a small Greek Revival church at Starcross near Dawlish, all slightly earlier than the reconstruction of St. Petrock's). The builder was Charles Force, and the cost £2,500. 

The most drastic change, however, came with the addition of a new chancel yet further south again. This necessitated turning the orientation of the church through ninety degrees to face south. The new chancel, with an organ chamber and vestry on the liturgical south side, was added to designs by John Hayward of Exeter and consecrated by Bishop Temple on 22 November 1881.

On the north side the north flank of the original nave faces the High Street, although for much of its existence it was obscured by shops and remained so until the widening of the High Street in 1905. There are therefore no windows except at clerestory level. There is, however, a doorway which is the main entrance to the church, with a four-centred arch surrounded by hollow mouldings and an ogee hood-mould terminating in foliate stops and with a big foliate finial at the top ; between this and the head of the arch is an incised trefoil. All this has the look of Romantic gothic and probably dates from 1828. The inner faces of the jambs are panelied. To the east of the doorway there are two blind round-headed arches of uncertain date. High in the wall is a series of three windows with Perpendicular tracery (again with more than a hint of 1828 and later restorations about them) under linked hood-moulds. Below and above the windows are moulded stringcourses, and above the latter is an embattled parapet. A solid mass of masonry at the west end of the north wall forms the base of the bell-turret which sits above it with unexpected lightness. The square base turns to an octagon with broaches and in each face of the octagon is a small ogee-headed louvred light. The embattled parapet is of pale grey stone and encloses a small octagonal louvred cupola surmounted by a weathervane.

A stone under a square lable low in the wall of the tower is carved with the shield of arms of the Diocese and of King Edward VII ; the inscription records the widening of the High Street in 1905 which brought the north wall and tower of the church into view.

The only other part of the exterior which may be seen from the ground is the chancel added in 1881. This has a five-light east window with cusped ogee heads to the main lights and crisp cusped tracery of basically geometrical shapes. The small vestry stands under a pyramid roof on the left side, and the north side of the chancel overlooks a narrow alley leading to a doorway in the corner of the nave. The north wall has a two-light window with ogee-headed lights and a pointed quatrefoil for tracery. 

The church is normally entered by the door in the north wall of the original nave, which leads into the liturgical west end of the present church. The present nave consists of an irregular room of roughly trapezoid shape, broader on the liturgical south side than it is on the north. This is spanned by two arches the south arcade of the original nave and a companion arcade of similar design separating the first south aisle from the outer south aisle. The arcades are each of three bays with composite shafts based on those of the cathedral, with shafts at the principal angles and three lesser shafts between, the whole being set diagonally. These have moulded bases and above the moulded capitals, four winged angels in the cardinal directions bearing shields. The arches continue the profile of mouldings of the pillars. The arch of the old chancel has responds and arch of the same design, and it may be questioned which pillars and arches are original and which are copies.

A taller pillar (but with a foliate capital and no angels) in the north-west angle of the nave carries the tower, the upper stages of which are reached by a staircase entered by a small doorway in the corner of the church. The nave is floored with red and black quarry tiles in the alleys and there are timber platforms under the pews. Under the tower and at the west end whole and fragmentary ledgers have been used as paving. The lower parts of the walls have panelled dados and the remainder of the wall surfaces are plastered.

The original nave has a clerestory on the north side and another on the south with three five-light windows, perhaps added in 1828, from which time also seemingly dates the curved plaster vaulted ceiling. Above the chancel arch there is a broad five-light window, not very tall, with four trefoil-headed lights and a lower central light with a round arch surmounted by a quatrefoil. In the west wall, beside the substructure of the tower, is set high in the wall, a two-light window with Y tracery.

The old chancel is paved with ledgers two steps above the level of the nave, and was remodelled in 1828, when a plaster quadripartite vault was inserted, lit by a central glazed oculus. In the south wall there is a three-light window, probably also of 1828, with trefoil-headed side lights and a cinquefoiled central light. The reredos which survives here was part of the 1828 remodelling. The east and north walls are both blind.

The old south aisle has a curved plaster vault with a central octagonal roof light, doubtless of 1828 and a west window of three lights with cusped intersecting tracery. The old outer south aisle has no windows and a small pierced light in the western part of the plaster ceiling. On the south side of it is the 1881 chancel arch, with a continuous moulded outer order and a moulded inner order resting on two polished marble shafts with moulded bases on corbels and moulded capitals. To the right of this is a simpler arch filled by the organ and to the left a small external door way under a single-light window.

The 1881 chancel stands two steps above the level of the nave and has an arch on the south side opening into the organ chamber and vestry. The stonework of the east window is left exposed and the walls are panelled up to a dado and plastered above. There is a low stone wall across the opening into the nave. The floor, which is paved with red and buff patterned tiles, and has red marble steps, is laid over a crypt entered by a brick staircase under the vestry floor. The roof is of three bays with arch braces.