Bishop’s Nympton Church of St Mary Basics

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