Bow church of St Bartholomew Basics
Listed building grade 1
Generally open
Address
Church of St Bartholomew
Bow
Crediton
EX17 6DB
Geographical coordinates
50°47’29.4″N 3°48’24.3″W (enter these in your smartphone navigator)
Devonchurchland says…
A little gem this one, not least because it is so bound up with the history of the surrounding Medieval landscape and the village of Bow, half a mile up the road from Nymet Tracey, where this church is.
There are some powerful 14th and 15th century windows, and a south porch equally full of interest; a Norman doorway, with a carved Norman head above and the original 15th century roof bosses above those.
A small, simple interior, with old granite pillars is very welcoming, and the two rood screens at the end of the nave and aisle even more so.
The aisle screen is late 15th century the nave one is a bit earlier and has some fascinating features, both well worth a good look.
A goodly atmosphere topped off with some fine stained glass makes this a delightful church to visit.
Outline
PLAN
- Nave
- Narrower and lower chancel
- West tower
- South porch
- Various Gothic styles.
AGE
- Norman-Transitional origins
- Nave rebuilt in late C14
- With new west tower
- C15 north aisle and south porch;
- General renovation in 1889-90 by R M Fulford
- Chancel completely rebuilt
- Carpentry and joinery by Harry Hems
BUILT FROM
- Roughcast tower with granite coping
- Original volcanic stone detail
- Restoration detail of Beerstone and Hatherleigh stone
- Nave of volcanic stone and local mudstone rubble
- With volcanic stone and restoration Hatherleigh stone detail
- North aisle of coursed red conglomerate stone
- Granite dressings
- Volcanic stone detail
- Restored with Hatherleigh stone
- Chancel of neatly snecked Hatherleigh stone
- Details of same stone
- Slate roofs with red crested ridge tiles
Exterior
WEST TOWER
- Unbuttressed
- Embattled parapet
- Stair turret projects square from north side
- Rises above tower parapet with embattled parapet
- Surmounted by a C19 wrought iron weather vane
- On each side are Beerstone 2 light belfry windows
- Cinquefoil-headed lights
- Probably restored
- West side has moulded surround and hood
- Containing a C19 plank door
- Unusual, somewhat fish-shaped, strap hinges
- Above door is a decorated 2-light arch-headed window
- Jambs, mullion and hood are restored
- Tracery is original
- South side of the tower has a small original round-headed window to the ringing floor
- Set below the drip course
NAVE
- Projects a little on the south side from the tower
- Either side of the porch is an arch-headed 2-light decorated window
- Similar to that in the tower
- The left is largely original
- The right is a complete replacement
- At right (east) end is a Transitional style window
- Comprising a pair of lancet lights
- It is almost a complete rebuild
- But incorporates 3 pieces of weathered volcanic stone (2 in the head) from the original
CHANCEL
- C19
- Blind full height pointed arch for a vestry
- Which was never built
- To the right (east) a 3-light Decorated-style window
- Immediately above a moulded drip course
- East end of chancel flanked by diagonal buttresses
- That to left (south-east) includes a foundation stone dated 1889
- East window is a large arch-headed 3-light Decorated-style window
- A larger version of that on south side
- The drip course rises in the centre to the sill of the window
- There is another above the window
- With a ventilator over
- Gable has shaped kneelers and coping
NORTH AISLE
- East end has original granite kneelers and coping
- The 3-light Perpendicular window is a C19 Hatherleigh stone replacement
- North side is a 3-window front
- With flanking diagonal and intermediate buttresses
- Central window is a Decorated-style 3-light replacement
- Original granite sill
- Almost round-arched hoodmould
- It is flanked by Perpendicular windows
- A completely C19 3-light replacement to the left
- A little-restored volcanic stone 2-light original to the right
- West end contains a C19 3-light Decorated-style window
- The sill, moulded jambs and almost round-headed hood are original granite
SOUTH PORCH
- C15
- Gabled
- Volcanic kneelers
- Granite coping
- Contains a plain round-headed outer arch
- Below a presumably C19 nowy-headed slate sundial
- With brass arm
- Gable apexes of the porch, nave, aisle and chancel have C19 fleuree crosses
Interior
VARIOUS
- C14 tall tower arch of volcanic stone
- Chamfered surround
- C14 chancel arch of granite
- Almost round-headed
- Has a double hollow-chamfered arch ring
- Semi-octagonal responds
- With plain soffit-moulded imposts
- 5-bay granite arcade
- The fifth overlapping the chancel
- Moulded piers (Pevsner’s Cornish Type A)
- Plain moulded caps and bases to shafts only
- This C15 arcade is not fully joined to the respond column of the chancel arch
- The nave and aisle window embrasures have exposed masonry reveals
- Only few have original hollow chamfered inner arches
- Which die into the jambs
- Tower has C14 volcanic 2-centred arch to the stair turret
- Contains a medieval studded plank door
- North wall of the aisle includes a pair of volcanic stone soffit-moulded image brackets
- Which may well have been reset in the C19
- Nave and aisle have C19 parquet floor
- Fielded panel oak wainscotting made up from C18 pews
- C18 oak pulpit
- Fielded panel sides
- Panelled pilasters to octagonal drum
- C19 brass lectern
- C19 oak benches
- Aisle has C17 oak chest with panelled sides
- Probably the one bought in 1634 according to the churchwarden’s accounts
SOUTH PORCH
- C15 open 2-bay wagon roof
- Moulded ribs, wall plate and simple bosses
- Stone floor
- South doorway of volcanic stone and sandstone ashlar
- An almost round-headed arch
- Chamfered surround
- Pyramid stops
- Contains a C19 plank door on wrought iron strap hinges
- Wth repousee enrichment
- Above it the remains of a round-headed hood mould
- Thought to be Norman or Transitional
- Above that is set a sandstone corbel
- Carved as a knight’s head
- Norman in character
ROOFS
- Both nave and aisle have C15 open wagon roofs
- Not identical
- Nave has an 8-bay roof similar to that in the south porch
- Moulded ribs and wall plate
- Mostly original foliate bosses
- And the unusual feature of carrying the main trusses through the wall plate
- And rounding off the bottoms to give the impression of corbels
- 11-bay open wagon roof of the aisle
- Higher quality
- Moulded ribs
- Continuous wall plate
- Carved as a fruiting vine
- Crenellated top
- The original wall plate survives only on the north side.
- Chancel roof of 1899 by Hems
- Boarded wagon roof of 4 bays
- Moulded wall plate
- Enriched with carved fernleaf and crenellated top
- Cusped diagonal braces and carved bosses
CHANCEL
- A Gothic-style carved oak reredos of 1889
- With contemporary credence to right
- C18 oak altar rail
- On alternate turned and twisted baluster supports
- Surely too late in style to be those paid for in 1680
- And recorded in the churchwarden’s account
- C19 Gothic-style oak choir stalls
- The C19 chancel floor includes patterns of encaustic tiles
- The blind arch to the never-built vestry has a double-chamfered arch ring
ROOD SCREENS
- Good, little-restored C15 Perpendicular oak rood screen of 5 bays with central doorway
- The wainscotting has applied cusped and ogee-headed tracery
- Quatrefoils in circles at the bottom
- Missing to right of doorway
- Square-headed 4-light windows have Perpendicular tracery
- On slender mullions
- Head has a delicately-carved band of flowing vines
- North aisle screen probably slightly later
- 4½ bays
- Basically similar
- But the wainscotting has linenfold panelling
- The window tracery is less elaborate
- And the cornice of fruiting vine is of higher quality craftsmanship
- Neither door survives
- Whole screen was brightly painted with gloss paint in 1984
- Design said to be based on traces of the C16 decorative scheme
- Unpainted rear is plain and unembellished
- C15 Perpendicular oak parclose is a light and simpler version of the north aisle screen
- Much-restored
FONT
- C14 Decorated Beerstone font
- Although carving probably recut in C19
- Circular plinth
- Octagonal stem
- Cinque foil-headed arcade
- Octagonal bowl
- Rim decorated with small, shallow rectangular pellets
- With inscribed crosses
- The edges with cusped quatrefoils in panels above cusped canopy of carved acorns
MEMORIALS
- 2 simple marble mural plaques
- One in memory of William Packer (d.1856) in nave
- Another in memory of Samuel Wreford (d.1859) and his family in the aisle
BELLS
- Ring of 4 C18 bells
- One by Penningtons of Exeter (1765)
- Others by Bibbies of Cullompton (all 1754)
STAINED GLASS
- 3 Beare and Driffield stained glass windows
- West end of north aisle in memory of John Kelland (d.1868)
- East end of north aisle in memory of James Lee Sanders (d.1874)
- West end of nave in memory of Robert Kelland (d.1862)
- The last two are signed R M Driffield
Other information
Local tradition claims that church built by Sir William de Tracey as an act of penance for his part in murder of Thomas-a-Becket and that the stone head outside the south door is his likeness.
This page contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0
