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Summary

Parish church of st. Matthews. Almost entirely early fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, but distinct traces of norman work inside. Features:- i) uncoloured fifteenth century rood screen. Ii) carved oak fifteenth century pulpit. Iii) fifteenth century glass. Iv) late medieval tiles. V) late medieval bench ends, also early sixteenth century same. Vi) parclose screen. Vii) table tomb. Viii) wagon roofs with many carved bosses. Ix) font, probably early thirteenth century. X) lofty, moulded arcades of elvan (hoskins).

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Church of England HER: 5242
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SS60NE/9
• Old Listed Building Ref (I)

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• PARISH CHURCH (Early Medieval to Post Medieval - 1066 AD to 1750 AD (Between))

Full description

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV46419.

Hoskins, w. G. /devon/(1954)372.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV46420.

Pevsner, n. /the buildings of england: north devon/(1952)74-75.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV46421.

Keen, l. /jbaa/32(1969)144-170 figs. Pls. /a series of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century lead-glazed relief tiles from north devon.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV46422.

Thompson, a. H. /arch. J/70(1913)472.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV46423.

Cresswell, b. F. /dcnq/10,pt.1(1918-1919)5/sepulchral slabs with crosses in devon churches.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV46424.

Watkin, h. R. /t. T. N. H. S. /6(1930-1934)212/seven hundred years ago. Ad 1232.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV46425.

Doe/hhr:coldridge/(15/12/1986)14-15.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV46426.

Nmr=ss60ne6.

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV46427.

Cherry, b. + pevsner, n. /buildings of england:devon/(1989)274-5.

WATKIN, Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV54436.

Author mentions tomb-slab with incised cross. It is grouped with slabs made (supposedly) for the families of those on the vi crusade (watkin).

KEEN, Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV9723.

Keen notes the post-medieval relief tiles of barnstaple make, which have been re-assembled in front of the altar in coldridge parish church (keen).

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV177625.

North window in chancel and blocked arch in nave remain from norman age. Otherwise mostly perpendicular. West tower with diagonal buttresses and stair-turret. Fittings described at length include norman font, monuments, screens, etc (pevsner).

CRESSWELL, Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV25789.

Coffin-shaped slab with incised cross on south side of church (cresswell).

Department of Environment, Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV325842.

Parish church. Some late c12/early c13 fabric survives in nave and chancel but most of the fabric is c15 and early c16; chancel heavily restored in 1877 and rest of church renovated in 1897. Roughly-squared blocks of mostly local mudstone but includes some volcanic stone and tends to courses; granite ashlar dressings and detail; restoration work of snecked masonry and bathstone and some volcanic ashlar detail; slate roofs. See doe list for full details (doe).

Untitled Source (Migrated Record). SDV335.

Parish church of st. Matthews. Almost entirely early fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, but distinct traces of norman work inside. Features:- i) uncoloured fifteenth century rood screen. Ii) carved oak fifteenth century pulpit. Iii) fifteenth century glass. Iv) late medieval tiles. V) late medieval bench ends, also early sixteenth century same. Vi) parclose screen. Vii) table tomb. Viii) wagon roofs with many carved bosses. Ix) font, probably early thirteenth century. X) lofty, moulded arcades of elvan (hoskins).

Historic England, 2017, National Heritage List for England, 1106595 (National Heritage List for England). SDV359963.

Parish church. Some late C12-early C13 fabric survives in nave and chancel but most of fabric is C15 and early C16; chancel heavily restored in 1877 and rest of church renovated in 1897. Roughly-squared blocks of mostly local mudstone but includes some volcanic stone and tends to courses; granite ashlar dressings and detail; restoration work of snecked masonry and Bathstone and some volcanic ashlar detail; slate roofs. Nave and chancel under continuous roof. North and south aisles both include east end chapels but do not extend as far as end of chancel. South aisle has the Barton Chapel, the north aisle has the Evans Chapel. West tower and south porch. Perpendicular style throughout. Probably late C15 west tower of 2 stages with diagonal buttresses embattled parapet and drip courses carried round the buttresses. The belfry has granite 2-light windows with plain almost round arched heads. 2 of the windows are partly obscured by early C20 open metal clock faces. On the north side a semi-octagonal stair turret with tiny slit windows projects and is surmounted by its own embattled parapet a little higher than the main parapet. On the west side of the tower is C15 granite 2-centred arched doorway with wave-moulded surround and cushion stops. The dripcourse once carried over the arch as a hood. The door is late C19. Above the door is a C19 replacement 3-light window with Perpendicular tracery and moulded hood. The south side includes an original small light to the ringing floor. The west gable end of the south aisle has plain C19 bargeboards and includes a late C15-early C16 tall square-headed granite window. Each of 3-lights has elliptical heads with sunken spandrels and moulded hood over. The south side is 4 bays with 3 windows and the porch left of centre. The 2 adjoining windows have a buttress between and whole is flanked by diagonal buttresses. The windows are all late C15 granite, 3-lights, arch-headed with Perpendicular tracery and moulded hoods but all are different in size. There is another large example in the east gable end. The contemporary porch was originally flat-roofed but made gable-ended in the late C19. Flanked by diagonal buttresses the outer 2-centred granite arch has moulded surround. There is an apparently C19 ashlar chimney shaft to right of porch, now redundant. A couple of broken but high quality C18 slate headstones are leaning against the east end of the aisle. The chancel appears mostly late C19 work. Its south side contains a volcanic stone 4-centred arch-headed priests doorway with chamfered surround, and to right a square-headed 2-light window with cinquefoil heads, sunken spandrels and moulded hood. The east gable end has shaped kneelers, coping and is surmounted by a plain Latin cross, and contains a large Bathstone 3-light window with Perpendicular style tracery and a moulded hood with the labels carved as a bishop and kings heads. The east gable end of the north aisle is recessed but not as far as the south aisle. It is roughcast and contains a late C15-early C16 granite square-headed 3-light window with elliptical heads, sunken spandrels and moulded hood. The north aisle has a 3-window front. The left end, the Evans Chapel, is roughcast and contains a C19 replacement volcanic stone square-headed 3-light window with 2-centred arch- headed lights, sunken spandrels and moulded hood, and to right is a Tudor arch headed granite priest's door. This section is separated from rest by projecting rood stair turret. The other 2 windows are C19 Bathstone replacement 3-light windows with Perpendicular-style tracery and are separated by a buttress. The west gable end was much rebuilt in C19 with shaped kneelers and coping and includes a large Bathstone lancet. The north aisle does not extend to the west end of nave and therefore a section of the north wall of the nave is exposed and it is late C12-early C13 fabric containing a large blocked pointed arch of sandstone. Good Interior. The porch has an attractive floor of small pitched cobbles around 3 flagstones. A slate memorial to John Ridd, curate (died 1810) is fixed to the west wall. The roof dates from 1897. The south doorway is a late C15-early C16 granite 4-centred arch with moulded surround and ramshed stops. The plank door is C19. The nave has an open barrel-vaulted roof of common rafter trusses. It has been mended and backed with pine boards in the C19 but is mostly C15 carpentry. Originally only a moulded purlin under the collars showed. There is no chancel arch and the roof pitch is carried through but the chancel roof springs from a lower level. It is a similar open barrel-vaulted roof of common rafter trusses and again appears mostly C15 work. Both aisles have late C15-early C16 ceiled wagon roofs. The south aisle roof is the finer of the two and may be slightly earlier than the northern roof. Only a few of the moulded oak ribs and purlins have been replaced and most of the carved oak trusses survive; they are square and carved with a variety of motifs such as sacred monograms, the Tudor rose and heraldic and fabulous creatures. A couple are inscribed but unreadable from the floor. The north aisle has a 6-bay roof with ovolo-moulded ribs and purlins, simple square bosses carved with geometric designs and plain wall plate; and the section over the Evans Chapel is a plain ceiled barrel vault. C15 tall and plain tower arch and inside of tower inaccessible at the time of survey. Walls of the north aisle, the nave and Evans Chapel are stripped of their plaster. All the windows have hollow-chamfered inner arches. The blocked late C12-early C13 arch in the nave is now a recess with simple soffit-chamfered imposts. North side of chancel has small blocked round-headed window in a deeply- splayed embrasure around which the ashlar voussoirs alternate between cream- coloured Salcombe stone and purple volcanic. It is presumably Norman. There are similar tall granite arcades either side of the nave. Both have moulded piers (Pevsner's Type A) with plain caps to the shafts only. The southern arcade is 4 bays with 1 overlapping the chancel. The northern arcade is also 4 bays with 2 overlapping the chancel. The first in the chancel is narrower than the others and arch is awkwardly askew. At the west end the respond cap has wreathed bead and ribbon enrichment and includes an heraldic achievement. The abaci in the chancel also include some carved enrichment whilst that on the cap of the east end respond bears the legend 'orate pro anima Jones Evans'. The floor of the nave and south aisle is C19 parquet but includes 2 coffin-shaped graveslabs. The oldest near the west end may be C13 and has a bas relief cross bottonee. Another near the Barton Chapel is probably C17 but the surname and date have worn away. Both are accompanied by panels of reset C16 or C17 green-glazed relief-decorated tiles. The north aisle and chancel have patterns of different-coloured C19 tile and include some more relief-decorated tiles. In the chancel there is also the odd C19 encaustic tile. The altar is flanked by reset graveslabs, one in memory of Mary Vickrey (died 1726) to left and the other to right in memory of Thomas Holc... (died 1650) has been cut to fit. Very good and little restored late C15-early C16 oak rood screen across chancel and both aisles. It is 12 bays with double doors to the aisles and chancel, all hung on original butterfly hinges. Each bay has slender Perpendicular tracery (Pevsner's A type) over panelled wainscotting with applied tracery. The middle rail and window reveals have carved scrolled wreathworks and each post is moulded with clustered shafts and plain caps similar to those on the arcade. The ribbed coving above is filled with good quality Gothic tracery and there is a frieze of 3 bands of delicate and densely carved foliage. On the reverse of the coving in the Barton Chapel one carving does not keep to the pattern and represents the upside down head of a Tudor lady with an enormous tongue! At the left end is the blocked granite 3-centred archway to the rood stairs. On the north side of the vestry the larger arcade arch to the Evans Chapel contains a reset late C15-early C16 oak parclose screen. It has been cut at each end to fit but is otherwise well-preserved and very little restored. It faces into the chapel and is 5 bays with central doorway and the outer bays incomplete. The wainscotting contains linenfold panelling. The windows are square-headed and 3-lights with twisted mullions and the head filled with Flamboyant tracery and each tracery opening is further subdivided by a lacework of tiny Flamboyant curves. The door appears to be a restoration reusing some original oak. Each bay separated by t;imber buttresses carved with crocketted finials. The headbeam is carved with a single cornice of fruiting vine. There are 2 pinnacles with crocketted finials and between there are the fragmentary remains of delicate openwork crestwork apparently carved in the same style as the sub-tracery. This unusual screen is thought to be the work of Breton craftsmen and is very similar to screens at nearby Brushford and Colebrooke. The other northern arcade bay has plain early oak-framed wainscotting and the southern arcade bay has probably late C17-early C18 pine scratch-moulded panelled wainscotting. Chancel has a plain C20 oak altar rail and C19 stalls. The Barton Chapel has a small piscina reset in the southern window sill. The Evans Chapel is now used as the vestry. The north wall has the table tomb of John Evans (died 1511 according to an inscription on a bench in the Barton Chapel). It is recessed into the wall under a granite ogee arch with moulded surrond and ramshed stops. There is the carved Beerstone recumbent effigy of Sir John in chain mail with a surcoat. A somewhat defaced angel by his head holds a shield which bears the legend 'John Evas' (sic). A projecting ledge of granite below bears a series of holes along the top from now-missing railings. The pulpit is a carefully renovated late C15-early C16 oak pulpit. The octagonal drum has shafts carved bayleaf frames and nodding ogee canopies with delicately carved openwork tracery above. The niches below were intended for figures of saints. The cornice is of similarly carved vine leaves. The oak lectern is late C19-early C20 but front includes a panel of oak carved in the same style as the pulpit and screen. The nave benches are late C19 possibly reusing older fielded panelling. The aisles and Barton Chapel however contain late C15 and early C16 benches. In the Barton Chapel, the bench ends have wreathed frames around simple blind tracery. The bench frontal, possibly from a prayer desk, has a linenfold front and the desk top was inscribed or recut in C19 in Latin in memory of John Evans (died 1511). The south aisle bench ends have moulded frames and are carved with geometric patterns. One includes a head of John the Baptist on a platter motif. The north aisle bench ends also have moulded frames but are plain and undecorated. The Barton Chapel includes a C17 oak table with heavy turned legs. There is also an oak chest of circa 1800 with a lobed frieze across the front over panels containing lozenge enrichment and fluted muntins. Right of the south door is a C17 oak hutch with a chip-carved front of fleur-de-lys and geometric flower motifs. The granite font is late C12-early C13 on a late C19 stone base. The square bowl has scalloped arcades along the sides and supported by a circular stem with minor columns on seach corner. The pyramidal oak cover is probably C17. There are no mural monuments except for a brass plaque on the south aisle wall recording the erection of the clock as a First World War memorial. Some early glass. The east window of the Evans Chapel includes a C16 stained glass figure representing Edward VI holding a book and sceptre beneath a crown from which flows ermine. There are some other contemporary stained glass fragments in the south aisle. The north aisle window tracery includes some green glass and the east window of the Barton Chapel has some blue-tinted bottle glass in the top lights. Source: Church guide.
Date first listed: 26th August 1965.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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