Bishop’s Nympton Church of St Mary Basics
Listed building grade 1
Regularly open
Address
West Street
Bishops Nympton
South Molton
Devon
EX36 4PH
Geographical coordinates
50°59’57.1″N 3°46’18.3″W (enter these in your smartphone navigator)
Devonchurchland says…
A mighty tall tower, preaching over the surrounding countryside, is the first thing that catches the eye around here. It is a stately beast, with some grand grotesques on it.
The bare stone continues inside. Sometimes bare stone can bring the ambience of a cave to a church, but this building is big and spacious and the feeling if more of a medieval hall, without the tapestries of course.
And the structure is one of the stars here; Very graceful inside.
The sanctuary is another star, with a simple altar and back curtain only, no carving, which works greatly well against the stone. The East Window is a darling too, two main panels, one showing the Crucifixion and one, unusually, Moses lifting up the bronze serpent.
The Easter Sepulchre niche in the sanctuary north wall is exceptional. A beautiful combination of gothic and renaissance carving.
Some folk say it was a tomb, not an Easter Sepulchre, but it seems more likely that it might have been repurposed after the Reformation. The coat of arms on top looks very much tagged on after the fact, and there is no sign of any inscription or other coats of arms.
More very nice stained glass too, all Victorian. Very nice Madonna and child in the south chapel, fanned by St Peter and another, with an equally good Annunciation below.
Lots of other beautiful glass too, the most fun being the St Cecilia window, playing her music.
Good roof bosses, the best being a medieval angel above the St Cecilia window.
All in all, a large North Devon church well worth some time of your delight. The church yard is nice a flat too, with a village green to the west, so choose a good day and enjoy the countryside too.
Outline
PLAN
- Chancel
- Nave
- South aisle
- West tower
- South-west porch
- North-east vestry and organ chamber
AGE
- C12 font
- Existing fabric mostly C15 and C16
- Perpendicular, although the fabric of the nave and chancel may be earlier
- South aisle is described as “completed” in 1621
BUILT FROM
- Slatestone rubble with freestone dressings
- Tower masonry brought to course
- Slate roofs
RESTORATIONS
- Chancel restoration of 1868 by Edward Ashworth of Exeter, (D.R.O.), cost £1,500
- Further restoration of 1877 (Tull), cost £1,090
- Tower restoration 1893
- Organ chamber, 1895
Exterior
WEST TOWER
- Unbuttressed of 3 stages
- Doorway on west side
- Jambs and arch each constructed out of 2 massive granite blocks,
- Pointed 4-centred arch
- Roll and hollow moulding and ball stops
- Relieving arch above
- Window above
- Probably late C19 replacement
- Relieving arch
- Second stage south side a very small slit window opening
- Arched head
- East side second stage
- Small single light square-headed window opening
- Third stage
- Round headed 2-light belfry openings at third stage
- Except for north side
- 2 single light openings
- Pentagonal stair turret projection on north side
- Slit window openings
- Battlemented at the top, rising above the battlementation of the tower
- 4-sided pinnacle at each corner with ball finials
NORTH AISLE
- Buttresses set back from corners between windows
- The plinth continues from the tower
- 3-light Perpendicular traceried windows
- Original jambs and hoodmoulds
- Tracery replaced in volcanic stone
- Also the mullion of the west window in granite
- Between 2 most easterly windows on the north side is semi-hexagonal rood stair turret projection
- Moulded granite capping
CHANCEL
- No plinth
- North side a plain lancet window
- 4-centred head
- East window replaced in 1874
- Volcanic stone
- 3-light Perpendicular style
- South side a single light window
- 4-centred head
- To its left is priest door
- 4-centred arched granite surround
- Hollow chamfered
SOUTH AISLE CHAPEL
- The plinth starts again
- East window original moulded granite jambs
- hoodmould
- Mullions replaced in granite and tracery in volcanic stone in C19
SOUTH AISLE
- Buttresses set back from corners of south aisle and intermediate ones between windows
- 3-light Perpendicular traceried windows on the south side
- Most easterly window retains its original granite mullions and jambs
- Tracery and hoodmould replaced in volcanic stone
- The 2 windows to its left retain only their original jambs, the rest replaced
- Window to the left of the porch is the same
PORCH
- Gabled
- Appears to have been added as it partially overlaps a buttress of the south aisle
- Probably late C15
- Setback buttresses
- Plinth follows the same course as on the south aisle
- Doorway has roll and hollow moulding to its granite jambs on inside and out
- Cushion stops on the outside
- Pointed 4-centred arch
Interior
NAVE
- C19 timber chancel arch
- late C15/C16 south arcade
- Moulded depressed 4-centred arches,
- Piers with capitals to the corner shafts only
- Very tall, elegant, tower arch
- Mouldings of the arch and responds matching those on the arcade
- Caen stone pulpit with a memorial date of 1888
- Blind traceried panels
- Divided by buttresses and a carved cornice
- C12 font
- Square bowl decorated with round-headed arches
- The bowl on a cylindrical stem
- The Purbeck marble moulded base and corner shafts are C19
- Nave benches probably late 1860s
- Square-headed traceried ends
- C19 commandment boards, painted slate
- Re-sited on the west wall of the nave
- Late C18/early C19 timber benefaction boards fixed to the tower walls
- Moulded frames
- One has painted decoration
ROOFS
- Nave roof is a ceiled wagon
- Wall plate C19
- Ribs and flat carved bosses probably early C16
- Aisle roof a ceiled wagon
- C19 wall plate
- Sculptural medieval bosses at the east end
- Including a shield-bearing angel
- Other bosses in the aisle are late C19 replacements
- Chancel roof is an extremely rare example in a Devon church of a medieval arch braced roof, rather than the common wagon
- Thoroughly restored in the C19
- New wall-plates
- That on the south side carved on brackets above the easternmost bay of the arcade
- The main trusses, probably C15 have moulded arch braces
- Threaded purlins
- A diagonally-set ridge
CHANCEL
- Chamfered C19 Tudor arched doorframe to the vestry
- Below a blocked round-headed arch
- Moulded arch of 1895 into the organ chamber
- Choir stalls probably of 1869,
- With poppyheads and traceried frontals
- The late C19 Gothic panelling in the sanctuary has been moved to the east end of the south aisle.
- A medieval timber statue, about 1.5 metres high, formerly on the east face of the tower, has been re-sited above the vestry door
- The statue of St James is elongated and may be of Spanish origin (Tull)
MONUMENTS
- Late Perpendicular chest and recess in the north wall of the chancel
- Probably an Easter Sepulchre
- Possibly the tomb of John Basset of Whitechapel (q.v.), died 1485 (Cresswell)
- Earlier scholars have asigned it to Judge Pollard of Grilstone (q.v.)
- The chest is decorated with 2 tiers of quatrefoils within twisted bead moulding;
- The recess has a crank-headed arch with twisted ribbon and foliage moulding
- Carved spandrels and a panelled soffit
- The crowning armorial shield is flanked by unicorn supporters (Basset) but with a puzzling leopard’s head crest (not Basset)
- Several C19 wall monuments
- White marble Egyptian tablet in the chancel to Mary Jones, died 1838
- Signed Gould, Barum
- In the nave a Gothic gabled monument
- The Toms family
- Memorial dates 1800-1906
- Also in the nave a late C19 Gothic monument
- Balman family
- Memorial dates 1818-1895
- in the south aisle a white marble Gothic wall monument
- John Sanger of Whitechapel
- Died 1834
- In the tower there is a good slate wall tablet
- Commemorating John Blackmore of Cross
- And recording a benefaction
- Painted order
- decorated with fruit, flowers
- Representations of death and time
STAINED GLASS
- East window possibly Beer of Exeter
- Described as “modern” in 1844 (Davidson)
- South chancel window
- Probably Alfred Beer of Exeter,
- Memorial date of 1835 but likely to be about ten years later
- east window of the South aisle with memorial date of 1888
- By Clayton and Bell
Other information
A major north Devon parish church with a fine tower and a very unusual medieval
chancel roof.
This page contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0
