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Summary

St Bartholomew's parish church in Cadeleigh with a medieval features and a 18th century interior

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (I) 1253997: CHURCH OF ST BARTHOLOMEW

Other References/Statuses

• Church of England HER: 5033
• Old DCC SMR Ref: SS90NW/5
• Old Listed Building Ref (I)

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• PARISH CHURCH (Early Medieval to XVIII - 1066 AD to 1800 AD (Between))

Full description

NMR, SS94NM 13 (National Monuments Record Database). SDV338899.

Pevsner, N., 1952, The Buildings of England: North Devon, 66-7 (Monograph). SDV336196.

West tower with diagonal buttresses and stair-turret. Nave and north aisle. Pevsner also mentions church fittings, 18th century box pews, communion rail, tiles, church plate and, in particular, the leach monument.

Hoskins, W. G., 1954, A New Survey of England: Devon, 360 (Monograph). SDV17562.

Mostly 15th century, a rebuilding of older church probably founded in 12th century.

Lamb, S., 1957, Some notes on 18th century furnishings in the parish churches of Devon, 220 (Article in Serial). SDV65364.

St bartholome's church in need of repair. Plaster panels on the walls, showing it had been 'beautified' in the Georgian period. The tunnel-like plaster ceiling remains over the chancel, but has been stripped from the nave to display the original rafters and in a very ruinous state in 1957.

Department of Environment, 1966, Cadeleigh (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV338900.

Church of St Bartholomew in Cadeleigh. Parish church. With the exception of the tower the exterior is fairly modest with window tracery replacement in a free Perpendicular style. The tower is unusual for the region in the survival of statuary. Internally the church is remarkabe in having little sign of any 19th century restoration.The chancel has an early 20th century 3-light Perpendicular east window with a moulded architrave and hoodmould. The south side of the chancel has a very small priest's door with a depressed segmental chamfered arch and a probably 18th century door. To the west of the doorway is a 1-light cusped window with a moulded architrave and a hoodmould. The nave is rendered and buttressed at the east end, with the porch in the first bay from the west. Three 2-light early 20th century windows have eclectic tracery combining Perpendicular and Decorated motifs. The north aisle is rendered except for the easternmost bay which is slightly battered. No east window. The easternmost window on the north side, associated with the Leach monument inside, has a Tudor arched head and 3 uncusped lights with old saddle bars and stanchions intact. The other 3 windows on the north side are similar in size and shape but with cusped lights and are probably early 20th century. The 3-light west window is Perpendicular, heavily restored in 1908. Flat-roofed battlemented vestry of 1908 by E H Harbottle (D.R.0) with a 3-light square-headed west window with cusped lights. Fine 3-stage battlemented west tower with diagonal buttresses and a projecting north-west stair turret with canted corners and a plain parapet. There are several unusual features to the tower : notably the statuary, which is of a high quality. The best surviving figure is under an ogee-headed niche on the stair turret. The niche is decorated with crockets and blind tracery and a figure, St Anthony with his pig, is vigorously carved. There are similar niches on the west and south faces but the statue is missing from the west face and the figure on the south face is headless. There are further statues under niches high under the battlementing on each corner except the southwest corner. Another unusual feature of the tower is the large scale of the 2-light transomed belfry openings. On the north and south faces these openings have blind quatrefoils above the lights; on the west and east faces there are plain chamfered volcanic arches to the lights. The north face has a trefoil-headed opening at bellringers' stage below a square-headed hoodmould and a relieving arch. The west door has a moulded segmental Beerstone arch with a hoodmould below a 3-light early 20th century Perpendicular style window with a hoodmould with carved label stops. The south face has a splendid bucket-sized lead rainwater head, probably 18th century.The gabled porch, restored in 1922, is rendered on the left and right returns. The Tudor arched chamfered doorway has high quality carved label stops of Queen Alexandra and Edward VII. 1922 1-light shouldered window on the right return. The interior of the porch has a ceiled wagon roof with moulded ribs ; the 2-centred inner doorway has a roll moulding and 2 pyramid stops to each jamb. Interior predominantly 18th century in character : shallow chancel, probably early 18th century wall plaster with a moulded cornice and decorative plaster panels on the nave and aisle walls and the spandrels of the arcade, arcade painted white; chancel arch formed by easternmost rib of nave wagon. 5-bay arcade of moulded Tudor arches on piers with corner shafts with good varied carved capitals. The nave roof is a ceiled wagon with thin moulded ribs; similar aisle roof with medieval carved bosses including heads, sacred monograms and symbols as well as the usual foliage. The chancel roof is a plain plastered waggon. Moulded, stopped tower arch, partly concealed by nave roof, the bellringers chamber is floored with probably 16th century deeply chamfered intersecting beams. The shallow chancel has no reredos and a 18th century communion rail with alternate turned and barleysugar balusters. The priests' door, although refaced on the exterior, is probably late 17th/early 18th century with original hinges. 19th century choir furnishings include a traceried priests' desk and chair and a timber lectern supported on an angel corbel. The nave has an 1890 timber drum pulpit with blind traceried panels, one with a figure of St Bartholomew under a nodding ogee arch. The font, possibly recut and of uncertain date is a square volcanic bowl with chamfered corners on an octagonal stem and plinth. Complete set of late 18th century box pews with fielded panels. Late medieval floor tiles, a rare survival, mostly sited at the east end of the aisle. Spectacular monument to Sir Simon Leach, Sheriff of Devon of Cadeleigh Court who died circa 1637, in the easternmost bay of the aisle. Two recumbent alabaster figures on a chest with single figures at the head and feet under a round-headed coffered arch supported on coupled Corinithian columns and crowned with a broken pediment and achievement. The chest is decorated with paired Ionic columns and rows of kneelers facing a prayer desk. The quality of the sculpture is high and the whole monument is richly decorated and lit by the window which it surrounds, which is partly blocked by an oval inscription panel. According to Cresswell the monument was probably erected during Simon Leach's lifetime (will proved 1637), and although other members of the Leach family are commemorated in inscriptions his name does not appear. The monument was in a state of decay in 1903 when it was restored by Harry Hems of Exeter with money raised by subscription. Another fine monument against the east wall of the aisle, commemorating Leach's first wife, Bridget Higgons, died 1691. Unusually urbane for Devon, a green and yellow marbled pedestal on a plinth, crowned with an urn with an inscription panel framed by a wreath on the front. Other monuments include a 17th century wall monument on the north wall of the chancel; inscription panel framed by Corinthian columns and crowned with skulls; a 19th century charity and memorial panel in a brattished stone frame on the south wall, commemorating John Wood, died 1843 and a number of late 19th and early 20th century wall plaques including an 1890 brass to Thomas Hopkins Britton by Wippel of Exeter. 19th century stained glass includes a good east window, memorial date 1884, maker unidentified; a south chancel window, memorial date 1877 based on the Light of the World. The westernmost window in the aisle, memorial date 1921, is probably by Percy Bacon, the window next east, memorial date 1902 probably Clayton and Bell. A rare survival in Devon of a largely 18th century interior, the medieval tower is also outstanding. Other details: LBS No 437306.

Keen, L., 1969, A Series of Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Lead-Glazed Relief Tiles from North Devon, 144-70 (Article in Serial). SDV15342.

Keen records the occurrence of post-medieval relief tiles from North Devon in Cadeleigh church. Other details: Figs & Plates.

Department of Environment, 1987, Cadeleigh, 51-52 (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV44403.

Church of St Bartholomew in Cadeleigh. Tower possibly late 14th century, north aisle late 15th/early 16th century; nave and chancel probably earlier in origin than either tower or aisle but there is little surviving evidence for early dating. Internal refurbishment of 1766. Considerable restoration work in the period 1900-1930, including the restoration of the porch and addition of the vestry. Volcanic stone rubble, the nave and most of the north aisle rendered; surviving medieval dressings appear to be beerstone, early 20th century dressings probably bathstone; slate roofs. Nave, chancel, west tower, five bay north aisle, south porch, northwest vestry.

Cherry, B. + Pevsner, N., 1989, The Buildings of England: Devon, 241 (Monograph). SDV325629.

Blaylock, S. R., 2002, Observations at St Nicholas' Church, Brushford, Somerset, 6 (Report - non-specific). SDV338883.

During repairs in 1993 pegged boards suggesting a former shingle roof were discarded. One specimen was retained by S R Blaylock. Other details: Fig 6.

Blaylock, S. R., 2003, Archaeological Recording of the Figure Sculpture on the Tower of the Church of Our Lady, Upton Pyne, 10 (Report - non-specific). SDV61801.

The surviving five sculpted stone figures on the tower suggest an early 15th century date. Drawings and a photographic record were made during conservation in 1993.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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