Awliscombe Church of St Michael and All Angels Basics
Listed building grade 1
Regularly open
Address
Church of St Michael and All Angels
Church Hill
Awliscombe
Honiton
EX14 3PJ
Geographical coordinates
50°48’34.3″N 3°13’51.0″W (enter these in your smartphone navigator)
Devonchurchland says…
Awliscombe church lies between two arms of the Blackdown Hills facing south on the main Honiton-Cullompton route; trade and agriculture probably explain the relatively large size of the church.
It has an unusual porch with two outer doorways, and some good image niches.
Inside is lovely, plastered and lime washed, with some fine medieval roof bosses.
Alongside these are an elegant memorial by the famous 19th century sculptor Peter Rouw and a very nice George III coat of arms.
One of the highlights is the stunning 15th century stone rood screen, old fashioned even when built, with good foliage carving and angels at the front.
There is also some quality stained glass, a few nice bits of Medieval and some very nice indeed Victorian artistry.
In the chancel, tucked away in the19th century choir stalls, is some lovely re-used medieval carving, from an old screen probably, and the organ pipes are worth a good look too.
The pillar capitals are very well carved, foliage and even the Devil and Christ well shown.
All in all well worth a visit, that screen especially is very unusual in Devon.
Outline
PLAN
- Nave
- Chancel
- West tower
- North Aisle
- South transept
- South porch adjoining transept
- Organ chamber and vestry adjoining the chancel on the south side
AGE
- Largely late C15/early C16
- Apparently a single programme of upgrading and enlargening an earlier building
- Described by Hoskins as “mostly rebuilt in 1846”
- Reseating and restoration by Robert Medley Fulford in 1886-7
BUILT FROM
- Mostly local flint
- Beerstone dressings
- Slate roof
Exterior
WEST TOWER
- Embattled
- 3-stage
- Moulded strings
- Gargoyles below the battlements
- Unusually large, rectangular, projecting south-east stair turret
- Diminishing stages
- Turret embattled
- Rising above the height of the tower proper
- Turret has slit windows
- 2-centred chamfered external doorway
- Steps up to an early C19 Gothick door
- West face has a moulded 3-centred west doorframe
- C19 door
- Elaborate strap hinges
- 3-light Perpendicular west window
- Tracery C19
- Moulded stone frame to the clock
- 2-light stone traceried belfry windows
- All 4 faces
- Extra rectangular opening on north face at belfry stage
NAVE
- To the west of the porch 2-light probably C15 window
- Below 2 re-set C12 or C13 corbels
- Masonry is disturbed here
- Possibly indicating a raising of the nave
SOUTH PORCH
- Embattled
- Adjoining south transept
- Unusual both for its elaboration
- And for having doorways in both the south and west sides
- Diagonal south west buttress in the angles
- With set-offs
- With a shallow statue nich
- Canopy
- Buttresses in the angles with the nave and transept
- Shallow statue niches survive over both doorways
- West niche has lost its canopy work
- All 3 statue niches have moulded bases of Renaissance character
- South and west doorways are moulded with an order of fleurons
- Matching internal arch into south transept
- Steps to the west doorway no longer exist
- Inside a shallow stone rib vault
- Ribs carried on corner shafts
- Central roundel
- Carved bosses
- Cornice on east wall decorated with fleurons
- Stone-topped benches
SOUTH TRANSEPT
- Probably the Chard chantry
- Wide buttresses
- Set-offs to the south face
- A very large, grand 5-light south window
- Entirely renewed in the C19
- Bathstone on the exterior
- But with medieval masonry on the inner face
- Medieval hollow-chamfered Beerstone jambs survive
- Decorated with fleurons
- Hoodmould has disappeared
- But C19 carved label stops remain
- Window is transomed
- With tracery below the transom as well as above it
- With a second transom in the centre light
- It has something of the grandeur of
Colyton west window, but on a smaller scale. - The right (east) return of the transept has a C16 square-headed volcanic window
- Trefoil-headed lights
CHANCEL
- Diagonal coped buttresses
- Ashlar-faced
- 4-light transomed Perpendicular east window
- 2-light transomed south window
- Concealed externally by the embattled 2-bay vestry and organ chamber
- The organ chamber to the west has a lean-to roof
- With a diagonal south-east buttress
- 2 eclectic late C19 traceried windows
- Flanking a coeval 2-centred moulded doorframe
NORTH AISLE
- Set-back buttresses at the west end
- Diagonal north-east buttress
- With 2 crude late buttresses on the north side (one concrete)
- Large 4-light Perpendicular east window
- 3-light Perpendicular west window
- Above an embattled C19 store or boiler room
- 5 irregularly-spaced 3-light Perpendicular north windows
- A probably C16 north door
- Frame moulded with an almost flat arch
- Hoodmould
- Studded plank door probably also C16
Interior
CHANCEL
- Double arch in the chancel
- Inner arch with a panelled soffit
- Possibly originally forming a canopy above a tomb chest
- This suggests that the east end of the north aisle is a remodelled chapel
- Absorbed into the later north aisle
- C19 and C20 fittings
- Traceried dado and matching communion rail to the sanctuary are probably early C20
- Commandment boards in elaborate stone frames
- Ogee gables
- Pinnacles
- Good Gothic script for the text
- Probably late 1840s or 1850s
- Poppyhead choir stalls may be of the same date
- Incorporating some medieval woodwork
- Trabiated opening into the organ chamber-cum-vestry
- Added in the late 1880s by Fulford
NAVE
- Plastered walls
- Some of the wall plaster early
- Possibly with wallpaintings concealed by limewash,
- Remains of a painted Royal Arms survive
- Over the south door
- Rounded chancel arch
- Panelled soffit
- Similar tower arch
- With panelled soffit
- Shafts with capitals to each respond
- Nave fittings C19
- Set of benches
- Matching,pulpit
- Timber lectern of 1887 designed by Fulford
- Carved by Hems of Exeter
- Font is probably C15
- Octagonal Beerstone bowl
- Carved with quatrefoils
- Stem with shallow panels and miniature buttresses
ROOFS
- Late medieval ceiled wagon roof to the nave
- Carved bosses
- Ribs more closely-spaced at the
abutment with the chancel arch, forming a ceilure - North aisle roof also has a late medieval ceiled wagon
- Flatter well-carved bosses with probably modern gilding
- Nave roof probably dates from the 1886-7 restoration by Fulford
- Open wagon boarded behind with 2 tiers of cresting to the wall plate and heavy carved
bosses - Painted decoration of the 1880s by Palfrey of London
- Open wagon boarded behind with 2 tiers of cresting to the wall plate and heavy carved
- Ceiled wagon
- Carved bosses to the south transept
SOUTH TRANSEPT
- Arch also has a panelled soffit
- Shafts to the responds
- Arch is decorated with an order of fleurons
- The south transept window is especially fine
- Jambs hollow-chamfered
- Decorated with tracery and statue niches
- Probably C18 hatchment hanging in the transept
NORTH ARCADE
- 5-bay
- Piers diagonally-set with corner shafts
- Capitals with carved foliage bosses
- Arches shallow-moulded
- Eastern-most nave pier abuts the chancel arch rather awkwardly
ROOD SCREEN
- Grand 5-bay Beerstone screen
- Presumably early C16
- Considerable restoration work
- The screen has C19 battlements
- Solid dado
- Central Tudor arched doorway
- Decorated with fleurons on the soffit and jambs
- 2-light traceried openings to each bay
- With projecting demi-angels holding scrolls
MONUMENTS
- Several white marble wall plaques
- One to Daniel Pring, died 1791
- Greek Medieval wall plaque to John Pring Esq of Ivedon (q.v.)
- Died 1820
- Profile head in a medallion
- Signed Peter Rouw, Modeller to His Majesty, New Rd., London
- Plaque to Mary Elliott
- Died 1853
- Signed Rogers of Bath
- In the chancel aisle a wall monument to Captain Daniel Pring
- Died 1846
- Showing a bust in a framed niche
- Signed Newman’s, Sidmouth
STAINED GLASS
- In the head tracery of the north aisle
- Remains of a C15 or early C16 medieval scheme
- By the Doddiscombesleigh school
- 3 very fine C19 windows
- The excellent east windows in the north aisle and chancel probably 1860s
- On stylistic grounds, probably by Haton, Butler and Bayne
- Fine south window in the transept
- Probably by Wailes
- Dated 1863
- West window signed Wailes and Stang, 1887
- Memorial window in the north aisle to Neumann (q.v. Tracey)
- Dated 1898,
- Probably by Percy Bacon
- Memorial window in south aisle to Porter, 1913
- By Blanchford
Other information
Unusually grand, matching, late Perpendicular details (panelled soffits to internal arches, a stone chancel screen) indicate a major refashioning of the church in the late C15/early C16, probably associated with a chantry to Thomas Chard, “probably titular bishop of Salubria” (Hoskins), who was born at Tracey (q.v.) in the same parish.
The rather awkward abutment of one of the arcade piers against the chancel suggests that the chancel is earlier.
The vestry/organ chamber is 1886-7.
An unusual grand church with impressive Medieval and C19 features.
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