Cadbury Church of St Michael and All Angels Basics
Listed building grade 1
Regularly open
Address
Church of St Michael and All Angels
Cadbury
Exeter
EX5 5LA
Geographical coordinates
50°50’01.4″N 3°32’52.6″W (enter these in your smartphone navigator)
Devonchurchland says…
A very pretty red stone church in a pretty churchyard in an equally pretty landscape. Totally charming.
The tower, nave and chancel might well date from the 13th century, though much renovation has taken place since, not least the addition of a north aisle in the early 16th century.
Inside is a simple space but worth a much closer look. For one there is a nationally important medical stained glass window showing Christ of the Seven Sacraments, not only a fascinating piece but the artistry in Christ’s face is stupendous.
Then the Victorian glass, a very fine collection indeed and worth a good look for itself.
Popping back to the 16th century there are some goodly bench ends and a lectern made from a bed of that century, kind of fitting for such a sleepy backwater.
Topped off with a rare volcanic stone Norman font, the church is a delight, and a beautiful place to relax in, both inside and outside.
Outline
PLAN
- Nave
- Chancel
- West tower
- 4-bay north arcade (1 bay to the chancel)
- South porch
AGE
- C12 font
- Tower possibly C13 (q.v. Bickleigh)
- May have been a nave and chancel church with west tower in the C13
- Circa early C16 north aisle
- Porch is also early C16
- Restoration of circa 1840
- Further restoration of 1857 by William White
BUILT FROM
- Volcanic trap rubble
- Freestone (mostly Bathstone) dressings
- Asbestos slate roofs
- C19 crested ridge tiles to nave and chancel
Exterior
WEST TOWER
- 3 stage
- Unbuttresed,
- Battlemented without pinnacles or string courses
- Slightly battered
- Large projecting rectangular north stair turret with slit windows
- Has similarities to Bickleigh (q.v.)
- Although the battlementing has been rebuilt
- West face has a volcanic trap shallow-moulded doorway
- Pointed segmental arch
- Cushion stops
- C19 plank and cover strip door with strap hinges
- 3-light circa 1840 Perpendicular west window with a hoodmould
- 2-light belfry opening
- Lintel a C19 replacement giving trefoil-headed lights
- Original probably being cinquefoil-headed, the form of the belfry opening on the north face
- Belfry openings on the east and south faces are granite
- With 2 segmental arched lights
- South face has a cinquefoil-headed opening at bellringers’ stage
NAVE
- East of the porch a William White window
- With 3 flush trefoil-headed lights
- Similar 2-light window to the west of the porch
CHANCEL
- East gable coped with Ham Hill and crowned with a cross
- 3-light circa 1840 Perpendicular east window
- With a hoodmould
- The two south windows are both William White
- One cinquefoil-headed light to the east and a 2-light Decorated style window to the west
- Between them is a characteristically William White feature
- A narrow priests’ door inserted in a wide buttress with set-offs
- Doorway is chamfered and stopped with a pointed segmental arch
- With a 2 plank door with strap hinges
PORCH
- Coped gable, crowned with a cross
- Flush buttresses with set-offs
- double-chamfered 2-centred doorway in volcanic trap
- Inner order dying into the walls
- Interior has timber-topped benches and a circa early C16 2-bay arch braced roof
- Moulded purlins and a collar purlin
- Southernmost truss is a C19 replacement
- Moulded 2-centred inner doorway in volcanic trap with cushion stops
- Door probably C20 but incorporating an earlier lock box
NORTH AISLE
- Coped north and south gables crowned with crosses
- 3-light 1840 north and south windows
- East window with a hoodmould
- North side windows are 1857 by William White
- As is the C19 buttress with set-offs
- Windows are asymmetrically-placed
- Two 3-light windows with trefoil-headed lights and a similar 1-light window to the west
Interior
VARIOUS
- Plastered walls
- Timber chancel arch
- Formed by the abutment of the nave and chancel roofs
- Plain tower arch with panelled soffit
- Black and red C19 tiled dado.
- The 4-bay arcade has been painted but is probably Beerstone
- With shallow-moulded Tudor arches
- Piers with corner shafts
- Good, varied carved capitals
- Unusual C17 lectern originally from Ottery St Mary (Cresswell)
- With strapwork decoration and a turned stem
- Stone drum pulpit, possibly circa 1840, decorated with blind arches
- The benches in the nave are utilitarian C19 with rectangular ends
- East end of the south aisle is a family pew screened off by a low early C19 Gothic screen
CHANCEL
- The reredos is said to be 1890 (Church Guide, n.d.) but looks earlier
- Perhaps it is 1840 with later marble embellishments
- Extends the width of the east end
- With gabled commandment boards to left and right
- A central nodding ogee flanked by blind arcading
- Polychromatic marble to the niches
- Includes a corbel to support an altar cross
- Stone credence table supported on a marble demi-angel.
- The floor tiling includes memorials to members of the Coleridge family
- Probably 1857
- Timber Gothic communion rail of 1840
- The altar, in situ in 1843 (Davidson), is made up of fine minutely-traceried panels
- Probably C16 and unlikely to be of English craftsmanship
- Choir has some interesting stalls made up of a mixture of medieval and C19 bench ends
- 1 bench end is especially interesting
- Shouldered with a crocketted head and carved with intersecting tracery
- Very similar to the notable set at Atherington is North Devon
FONT
- Unusual, probably C12 volcanic trap with a square bowl
- Scallopped underneath on a round stem
- Decoration on the plinth
- Stem and plinth are C19
- Font cover, circa 1840
- Clearly not designed for the present font
- Ogival profile and is carved with blind tracery
ROOFS
- Aisle roof is probably early C16
- Keeled unceiled waggon with the principal ribs moulded
- Chancel roof, possibly circa 1840, is of similar design
- But with a carved wallplate and carved bosses
- William White’s 3-bay nave roof is arch braced
- With a collar purlin and collars between the common rafters
- Which have diagonal boarding behind them
- Easternmost truss, which forms the chancel arch, is carried on painted wooden posts on corbels
MONUMENTS
- In the floor at the east end of the south aisle
- 3 ledger stones of the early C17
- Including a particularly fine one commemorating George Fursdon, died 1643
- Includes armorial bearings in relief
- And a verse
- “Bee dumbe thou influence of officious verse/Fursdon esquier lyes veild within this herse/Twoold bee to rude an insolence to his shrine/too cloathe transcendent merit with a line”
- North wall of the chancel
- Early C19 grey and white marble wall monument to George Fursdon
- Died 1837,
- Signed E. Gaffin, Regent St. London
- Aisle
- Late C18 grey and white marble obelisk wall monument to Charles Hale
- Died 1795
- With a long inscription on a white marble sarcophagus
- Also in the aisle
- A white marble wall monument to Elizabeth Lyon
- Died 1789,
- Signed Kendall, Exon
- An obelisk with a draped urn
- Several other C19 wall monuments
- On north side of chancel
- Monument to Nicholas Eveleigh (d.1618)
- In white limestone
- Consists of a figure propped up on one elbow
- Beneath it an ornately carved chest
- Above it a high round arch
- Flanked by Corinthian columns
- Immediately above figure is a tablet carved with the inscription ‘1620 1D’
- On south side of chancel
- Monument of Elizaeus Hele (d.1636)
- Alabaster.
- Similar in design to Eveleigh’s monument
- But with less ornate detail
- Flanking columns are of grey marble
- Front of the chest are the kneeling figures of his son and 2 wives
- On the floor of nave and aisles several good C17 ledger slabs
STAINED GLASS
- Important late C15 stained glass in the east window of the north aisle
- Moved from the east window
- A central figure of Christ showing his wounds
- Clearly originally part of a 7 sacraments design by the Doddiscombsleigh atelier of glass painters
- The largest single surviving figure from the workshop outside Exeter Cathedral
- The flanking lights are probably by the Hardman company
- Who provided 2 windows in the north aisle and 1 in the south aisle.
- Westernmost window in the south aisle by Clayton and Bell
- With a memorial date of 1877
- Chancel windows by Beer of Exeter
Other information
A fine Church with notable glass and a good restoration by William White.
In 1843 the east and tower windows were described as “New” as were the altar and communion rails. The chancel roof may also date from the same phase. In 1857 William White rebuilt the south wall,replaced the north side windows and replaced the nave roof.
A chest in the vestry (curtained off at the west end of the aisle) is said to be 1606 (Cresswell) and retains some painted decoration.
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