Alwington Church of St Andrew Basics
Listed building grade 1
Variably open, please check here
Address
Church of St. Andrew
Alwington
EX39 5DA
Geographical coordinates
50°59’08.3″N 4°16’27.1″W (enter these in your smartphone navigator)
Devonchurchland says…
A wonderful church this, in an isolated North Devon parish with a fine view south.
The outside is a delight, good windows and some magnificent Medieval grotesques on the tower.
Inside is marvellous.
Starting with the roof, some of the old bosses are great fun, including a dragon in a mitre as they do.
But it is the bench ends, and the panelling made from Late Medieval bench ends, that really take the breath away, from Gothic to Renaissance they are beautiful.
The pulpit and altar back have also been made from the bench ends, and they are equally enchanting. The altar back also has a couple of good Victorian saint paintings.
But the wood carving does not stop there. There is a private pew in the south aisle that is made from beautiful Elizabethan work, taken from a local grand home, and equally lovely are the 20th century bible scenes carved by Reuben Arnold around the church.
Topped off by good stained glass and a fine monument or two, and more, this is a most goodly church.
Outline
PLAN
- Chancel
- North vestry
- Nave
- North transept
- Continuous south aisle
- South porch
- West tower
AGE
- C15
- South aisle rebuilt in C17
- Some restoration in 1883
BUILT FROM
- Granite ashlar;
- Coursed slatestone rubble to north walls
- Late C19 gabled and stone-coped slate roof
- C15 head carvings to kneelers of chancel
- And south aisle
Exterior
WEST TOWER
- Fine tower
- 3-stage
- Offset and full-height setback corner buttresses
- String courses
- Hood mould over 3-light Perpendicular window
- Panel tracery above hood mould
- Over moulded basket-arched doorway
- Slit lights to north-east stair turret
- Hood moulds over cinquefoiled second-stage lights
- Stone louvres
- To belfry are hood moulds over 2-light Y-tracery windows
- Trefoiled heads
- Crouching gargoyles at corners of crenellated parapet
- Crocketted finials to pinnacles
SOUTH AISLE
- Perpendicular-style three-light windows
- Panel tracery in east and west gables
- Hood moulds with square stops
- 4-bay south wall C17 three-light mullioned windows
- C17 panelled and studded door
- Chamfered wood architrave with similar crosses carved in spandrels
SOUTH PORCH
- C15 basket-arched moulded doorway
- Hood mould over
- Similar architrave surrounds mid-C19 panelled door
- C15 traceried head
- C15 sanctuary knocker
- C17 clasping ring on heart-shaped back plate
- Heart-shaped lock surround
- C15 barrel lock and framing to rear left
CHANCEL
- 3-light Perpendicular east window
- Cinquefoiled heads and panel tracery
- Hoodmould with head stops
- Late C15 two-light square headed window to south
- Vestry to north
- C15 iron grille set in square window
- Chamfered head and jamb
- Above label mould over C15 two-light square-headed window
- With cinquefoiled heads
- Label mould over C15 three-light cinquefoil-headed window
- North chancel
NORTH TRANSEPT
- Blocked window to east
- Hood mould over C15 three-light Perpendicular window
- Panel tracery
- North window had mullions and jambs replaced in 1862
NORTH NAVE
- Two C15 three-light square-headed windows
- Cinquefoiled heads and C19 sills
Interior
VARIOUS
- Plaster scraped off walls in 1883
- Late C15 waggon roofs to nave and chancel
- Moulded ribs and foliate-carved bosses.
- 5-bay C15 nave arcade
- Depressed arches
- On the usual quatrefoil piers of monolithic granite
- Stepped cornices.
- Eagle lectern installed 1903
- C19 bier in north transept
- Font has C15 octagonal top
- Set on C13 stem
- King’s Arms placed in 1814 on west wall of south aisle
NORTH TRANSEPT
- Above north window C18 crocketed hood mould with head stops
- C15 square relief showing mermaid
BENCH ENDS AND PEWS
- C16 benches (a rare survival) with carved tracery etc
- One dated 1580
- Two bench fronts are carved with late C16 arabesques
- Lectern, tower screen, choir stalls, and some pews
- Carved by local wood-carver Reuben Arnold
- Between 1906 and 1927
- Old and New Testament Scenes
- South aisle has two rows of late C18 box pews
- C19 Pine-Coffin family pew at east end of south aisle
- Made from Jacobean balusters, cartouche panels, caryatids, strapwork tops
- And other wood carvings brought from Portledge Hall
PULPIT
- 1792 from reused C16 carved bench ends
- Slim Perpendicular-style columns support the sounding board
- Which has carved sides and crocketted pinnacles
CHANCEL
- Reredos of c. 1805
- Painted panels of SS. Peter and Andrew
- Much reused C16 and C17 carved panelling
- Said to have been brought from Parkham Church (q.v)
- Gothic-style altar rail of c. 1790
- Choir stalls & reading desk installed 1904-5
MONUMENT
- Chancel
- Lozenge-shaped tablet to George Blake
- d.1763
- C19 marble tablets
- Late C19/early C20 brasses to Pine-Coffin family (of Portledge House)
- North transept
- Obelisk-shaped monument to Charlotte Morrison
- d. 1791
- Her daughter and husband
- Monument to Rev. Thomas Hooper Morrison
- d.1824
- Rectangular mon-axial tablet
- Palm fronds and
- heraldic shield
- Flanked by scrolled brackets with carved festoons
- Plain tablets to Eleanor Morrison, d. 1841
- And Dora Hammett, d. 1885
- South aisle
- Memorial to John Meddon
- d.1775
- Draped urn and inscription panels
- Set on oval mount
- Monument to Richard Coffin, d. 1617, and his wife, d. 1651
- Erected by their sole surviving son, James, in 1651
- Has a heraldic achievement set in a broken segmental pediment
- Above two coloured demi-figures in relief and holding hands
- Above 15 children
- Slate inscription
- C17-18 ledger stones and Barnstaple tiles on aisle floors
STAINED GLASS
- East window
- dated 1863
- North transept window dated 1861
- North chancel
- window dated 1868
- Fine Resurrection window dated 1871 to west window
- South aisle has fragments of C16 armorial glass in heads of east window
- And old leaded cames with diamond-shaped leaded lights to central windows
Other information
The woodwork is some of the best in Devon
This page contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0
