East Allington Church of St Andrew Basics
Listed building grade 2*
Regularly open
Address
Church of St Andrew
Church Hill
East Allington
Totnes
TQ9 7RE
Geographical coordinates
50°19’19.3″N 3°43’45.5″W (enter these in your smartphone navigator)
Devonchurchland says…
A lovely south Devon church with a fine local-style tower and very nice stonework on the exterior.
Inside it has an arcade from the 1300s and one fro the 1500s, a nice comparison, and was renovated in the 19th century.
There is a beautiful 16th century wood pulpit, beautifully carved, with some early 17th century additions.
The pulpit is another marriage of the16th and 17th centuries, erected in the 16th with some additional panels in the 17th; both very well carved.
The Sanctuary is Victorian with a grand alabaster altar back (reredos), with limestone carving of the crucifixion.
There is a very good ‘Covenant’ window by George Cooper Abbs from 1836 showing rural scenes and Christ in his majesty.
Some good monuments too, especially a pair of brasses form the 16th century and two stone kneeling figures from the 17th.
The wood carving alone makes this a church worth visiting, the other treasure make this a church well worth enjoying for an hour or two.
Outline
PLAN
- West tower,
- Nave
- Chancel
- 5-bay north and south aisles
AGE
- Probably C13 origins
- Enlarged in C14
- Enlarged again and remodelled in early C16
- Restored in mid C19 by William Cubitt and reopened in 1875
- The C13 church was probably only a nave and chancel
- Enlarged in C14 by the addition of a north aisle
- West tower possibly C14
- Although tower might have been largely rebuilt in the early C16
- Whole church remodelled and enlarged in C16
- South aisle and integral porch C16
BUILT FROM
- Dressed slate rubble
- Granite dressings
- Slate roofs
- Stone coped gable ends
Exterior
WEST TOWER
- C15 battlemented with a plinth
- Tall
- 3-stage with set-back buttresses
- Embattled parapet on a corbel table
- Off-centre on the north side is a polygonal stair turret
- With a tented stone dome and weathervane
- Small round-headed bell-opening on each side with slate louvres
- On the south side C19 lights have been inserted at the ringing stage
- Late C19 granite Perpendicular style west window
- 3 lights
- Blocked west doorway below
- With chamfered slate 2-centred arch
- 6 bells, four of which were cast in 1723, one in 1861, and one in 1908
NAVE
- Buttresses and 2- and 3-light Perpendicular windows
- Except a C19 Decorated pulpit window
- To the east of the rectangular stair turret
SOUTH AISLE
- 4 C19 granite Perpendicular style 3-light windows
- Buttresses with set-offs between
- A tall narrow round arch south porch doorway to left
- With a broad ovolo moulding.
- The inner doorway has a tall narrow chamfered round arch
- Late C19 door
- Late C19 stair turret at the west end of south aisle in angle with tower
- Early C20 priest’s doorway in split buttress
- To its right a slate monument to Dorothy Tawley died 1728
NORTH AISLE
- Mainly C19 Perpendicular style windows
- Centre window C16
- Has 3 round-headed lights
- Hoodmould with stops
- Easternmost is a Medieval Beerstone Perpendicular traceried window
- Buttresses with set-offs between the windows
- Large polygonal rood stair turret with battlements
EAST WINDOWS
- Both the 3-light east windows of the aisles are Medieval and granite,
- That of the north aisle with panel tracery,
- South aisle east window has simple tracery with round-headed lights
- Chancel east window is a 4-light late C19 Perpendicular style replacement
Interior
NAVE
- Plastered walls
- Hollow chamfered rear arches
- The tower has exposed masonry
- And a tall unmoulded 2-centred tower arch
- With chamfered imports
- The original roofs were all replaced with unceiled waggon roofs with moulded ribs in late C19
- The floors are paved in late C19 tiles
- Furnishings are late C19 including benches in nave and aisles
- And the carved wooden eagle lectern
- Marble font is circa 1900.
- Organ of 1913 is American
ARCADES
- 5-bay north arcade
- The 2 chancel bays have double chamfered 3-centred arches
- And granite monolith A type piers with moulded caps and basin
- The east respond is polygonal in dressed slate
- The other north aisle piers are granite monolith octagonals
- Moulded bases and caps
- Moulded granite 4-centred arches
- The south arcade is similar
- But the all the piers are A-type granite
- Except for the east respond which is semi-octagonal
- And the westernmost bay is occupied by the integral south porch
- Cusped head piscina in east end of north aisle
ROOD SCREEN
- About 1547
- Across nave and aisles
- Largely complete but canopy is missing
- One of the bench ends fixed to the base is dated 1633
- One bay of the south parclose screen survives
- The north parclose is C20
- Incorporates fragments of old tracery
PULPIT
- Base and panels are C16
- Gothic foliage between the panels which have canopied niches
- Renaissance style frieze with a Jacobean billeted cornice
CHANCEL
- Reredos of 1892 in carved alabaster In 1908 sanctuary
- Walls panelled in marble
- The choir stalls C19
STAINED GLASS
- Most of the Windows have C19 plain glass with red borders
- A small fragment of Medieval glass in one of the north chapel windows
- East and west windows have late C19 pictorial glass
- In memory of Mrs Fortescue and William Cubitt (1892) respectively
- Memorial Window to Felix Calvert of Coombe in north aisle, 1936 by George Cooper Abbs.
WALL MONUMENTS
- Chancel
- Marble monument to Revd Nathaniel Wells d.1762
- Signed M Emes Exon
- Other Gothick monuments in chancel to members of the Wells family one signed Weeks
- At the east end of south aisle
- An early C17 monument with kneeling figures in an aedicule
- A brass to John Fortescue 1595 and wife
- A fragment of a brass to right with one kneeling figure and tablet above dated 1572
- With a shield
- In the chancel south chapel
- A Fortescue wall monument of 1821
- 3 C17 local marble ledger stones to the Fortescues
- south aisle
- Two other C17 slate ledger stones
- A Gothick wall monument to Fortescue Wells died 1861
- Large classical marble wall monument to members of Fortescue family
- Chancel north chapel
- Unusual wall monument with a laurel wreath around a heart
- Inscribed to memory of Elizabeth Wood
- Above an undated monument to members of the Scobell family of Nutcombe (probably late C18)
- Nourh chapel
- Slate plaque to Mary Pages died 1761 signed J. Doleman of Modbury
Other information
Good series of wall monuments. Chamfered plinth around the church
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