East Budleigh Church of All Saints Basics
Listed building grade 1
Regularly open
Address
Church of All Saints
East Budleigh
Budleigh Salterton
Devon
EX9 7ED
Geographical coordinates
50°39’22.0″N 3°19’19.4″W (enter these in your smartphone navigator)
Devonchurchland says…
A real star this one, With a beautiful red stone exterior set in a lush churchyard and a deep history connected with Sir Walter Raleigh, one of the first English colonisers of North America.
Inside it just gets better and better.
There is one of the earliest surviving chancel screens in Devon, with traces of the supporting beam for the loft, very different from later screens that supported the loft through wooden vaulting.
Then there is a fantastic 1894 pulpit carved by Harry Hems of Exeter, a beautiful piece of oak woodwork.
Some impressive medieval roof bosses too, expertly re-coloured in the 19th century, along with fine stained glass from the same period.
The real fame of the church though comes from its 16th century bench ends an astounding collection, over 60 and still counting. They show local life, so beautifully so, along with foliage that seems to be bursting out of the wood, exuberant and subtle at the same time. Worth a good long look to really appreciate them.
There are also some 20th century bench ends of the same calibre, two of them WWI memorials and extremely well executed.
There is so much more too: fine stone work, a goodly piece of Flemish woodwork, fascinating memorials, and all just a hop, skip and jump to the beach at Budleigh Salterton.
What is not to like?
Outline
PLAN
- Nave
- South and north aisles
- Chancel,
- South west porch
- West Tower
- Vestry
AGE
- C13 origins
- Now all C15
- Probably 1420-55
- Since arms of Bishop Lacy survive in glass in the north aisle
- Restored 1884 with new vestry
- By R.M.Fulford
BUILT FROM
- Roughly coursed dressed blocks of local conglomerate sandstone
- Quoins variously of conglomerate sandstone, red sandstone and Beerstone
- Original Beerstone detail
- C19 restoration in Bathstone
- Slate roof
- Formerly shingles
- North aisle was thatched until the late C18
- Vestry built of Torquay limestone with Bathstone detail
Exterior
WEST TOWER
- Appears to be the oldest part since the aisles butt it
- However it looks C15
- 3 stages
- Chamfered plinth
- Diagonal buttresses to the west end
- Set back buttresses to the east
- Weathered offsets and stop below the belfry
- Embattled parapet
- Semi-octagonal stair turret on the north side
- Rising a little higher than the tower
- Own embattled parapet
- Tiny slit windows
- Surmounted by a brass weather cock
- If it is the one mentioned in the 1785 churchwardens accounts then it has been restored in the C20
- The belfry has square-headed 2-light windows
- Cinquefoil heads and hoodmoulds
- Slit windows to the ringing loft on the north and south sides
- On the west side is a doorway
- 2-centred arch
- Moulded surround with roll stops.
- Contains a C19 plank door
- Ornate strap hinges
- Directly above is a rebuilt 3-light window
- Perpendicular tracery
- Tower dripcourse is carried round the bottom of the window
- Hoodmould over
SOUTH AISLE
- Soffit-moulded eaves cornice
- Embattled parapet with moulded coping
- Both are carried round the south porch
- All windows here have new mullions and Perpendicular tracery
- Hoodmoulds and labels carved as heads are original
- All 3-lights except that at the east end which has 4-lights
- Most of the labels are very weathered
- But those at the west end are well-preserved
- One represents a monk with a very pained expression
- Porch has large restored Beerstone outer arch
- 2-centred arch with richly-moulded surround,
- In the side walls are Beerstone slit windows
- To left there is a window
- To right are 2 more separated by a buttress
- Buttress each end
- Rood turret is 3-sided
- Large Beerstone and red sandstone quoins
- Contains a slit window
- Made from a single piece of limestone
CHANCEL
- Has a lower roof
- And set at a slightly different axis to the nave
- Parts may derive from the C13 church
- If so it was also renovated in the C15 and in 1884 it was lengthened and a new vestry was built on the north side
- There is a rood turret in the angle of the north aisle and chancel
- Reopened in 1891
- C19 fenestration
- South side there are 2 windows
- Left one is a 2-light window
- Perpendicular tracery and hoodmould
- Right one is square-headed
- 2 lights
- Cinquefoil heads and hoodmould
- Head actually looks old but if so it has been reused
- Between the 2 is a narrow priests door
- 2-centred arch
- Hollow chamfered surround with hoodmould
- There are setback buttresses on the east end
- Plastered with Bathstone ashlar offsets
- East end contains a large 3-light window
- Decorated tracery
- Hoodmould with ball labels carved as fruiting vine
- North side there is a lancet
- Decorated tracery
- In the short distance between the vestry and north aisle
- Gable ends of the chancel, nave and north aisle
- Ashlar coping and apex crosses
VESTRY
- The eastern end is flat roofed
- Moulded cornice and parapet
- Taller western end has a pitched roof
- At right angles to the chancel
- With half-hipped roof
- On the north side the doorway is a pointed segmental arch
- To right is a trefoil-headed lancet
- Then a similar twin lancet
- And on the north side a triple lancet
- End of the taller part includes a rectangular window
- Trefoil-headed tracery either side of a projecting stack
- With a chimney shaft
- Weathered offsets
NORTH AISLE
- Windows are C19 replacements
- Decorated tracery and hoodmoulds
Interior
NAVE & AISLES
- Nave with north and south aisles and porch date from Bishop Lacy’s rebuild
- The tower arch is tall
- With a chamfered double arch ring dying into the plain responds
- Chancel has a large Beerstone arch
- Responds are moulded exactly the same as the arcades
- With caps to the shafts only
- Which are carved with fleur-de-lys and flowers
- Each side of the nave has a 4-bay Beerstone arcade
- Piers are moulded (Pevsner’s Type B)
- With caps to the shafts
- Carved with a variety of floral and foliate motifs
- Central pier of the northern arcade has an image bracket half way up
- On the nave side
- Its corbel is carved with a green man motif
- Below a cornice of 4-leaf decoration
- The rood stairs were opened up in 1891
- Plain square-headed doorways top and bottom
- Contains a squint across between south aisle and chancel
- Gothic style lectern may be as late as C20
- C20 timber screen across the tower
- Made as a copy of the chancel screen
- Above is the organ
- Moved from the chancel and rebuilt here in 1967
- The tower itself was inaccessible at time of survey.
ROOD SCREEN
- Oak chancel screen is C15
- Much repaired.
- Relatively plain without fan-coving
- It is 5 bays, 2 each side of a doorway
- The wainscotting with blind arcading is C19 replacement work
- Windows appear mostly original
- Square-headed with slender Perpendicular tracery
- Pevsner’s A- type
- The crenellated wall plate is probably C19
BENCH ENDS
- The glory of the church is its complete set of C16 oak benches
- High quality workmanship
- All are slightly different
- Possibly acquired over a period rather than being a single scheme
- Frontals and backs of each set have blind ogee-headed arcades
- Most of the bench ends have a frame of wreathed foliage
- With small urn stops around a carved panel
- All deserve attention, but the space here does not permit individual description
- Examples include:
- The Raleigh pew dated 1537
- Featuring a shield (the arms are defaced) with greyhound supporters
- And above a helmet in profile with antler crests
- A very early representation of a North American native (arguable)
- A wool merchants pew featuring shears, comb, bowl of wool balls and Bishop Blaize
- A C16 ship riding the sea with a castle, possibly Plymouth Barbican, in the corner
- Others bearing arms, symbols of trade
- Individual profiles including some obvious caricatures
- A unique series
- Gothic in style but none with tracery
- Wholly secular without a single sacred emblem
- The C19 reseating created more space
- Which has been made up with C20 benches
- Their ends carved to complement the originals
FONT
- The font is probably early C15
- Contemporary with the Bishop Lacy rebuild
- Built of Beerstone
- An octagonal bowl
- Each face with a sunken quatrefoil panel with a floriated centre
- A band of carved foliage around the base
- Stem has blind cinquefoil-headed arcade around over a moulded base
- It stands on a C20 2-step plinth
PULPIT
- Ornate
- Late C19
- Designed by Fellowes Prynne
- Carved by Harry Hems of Exeter
- Erected in memory of R. H. Lipscomb, steward of the Rolle Estate
- Died in 1892
- An octagonal drum pulpit
- On each corner are small saintly figures
- One on top of the other
- With nodding ogee canopies
- Each side has a Biblical scene
- Delicately carved in high relief
- With canopies and undercut tracery
- Under the top a cornice of carved foliage
- Stem has blind cusped panels each side
FLOOR
- Flagged
- Contains some old graveslabs
- The oldest is the remarkable late C16 graveslab
- Set in a prime position in the nave
- In memory of Joan Raleigh, widow of Otto Gilbert
- And first wife of Walter, father of Sir Walter Raleigh
- Inscribed with a fleuree cross on a pedestal
- Framed by an inscription done in mirror writing
- It reads:
- ‘ORATE PRO AIA JOHANNE RALEYH OXTS WALTRI RAILE ARMIG QUE OBIIT X DIE MENSI JUNII ANO D…’
- The year has worn away
PORCH
- Flagged floor
- Stone benches along either side
- High lean-to roof
- 4-panel intersecting beam ceiling
- Moulded beams and central carved oak boss featuring a rose
- South doorway is a Tudor arch
- Moulded surround
- Enriched with four leaf decoration
- With large roll stops
- Contains a restored but essentially ancient studded oak plank door
- Above the door is a large painted board
- Recording charity bequests from the 1830’s
CHANCEL
- North side contains a large C19 blind arcade
- With double-chamfered arch ring
- Once housed the organ console
- Alongside to right is the vestry doorway
- Flat trefoil-arched head
- Halfway along the south side is the C15 trefoil-headed piscina
- Marking the position of the altar before the chancel was lengthened.
- The walls are whitewashed
- Probably what were C16 painted frescoes were discovered on the aisle walls in the C19
- The traces of ancient colour depicted an arcade of columns in crude perspective
- With a cherub and inscription (described by T.N. Brushford)
- Lined on the sides with C18 fielded-panel wainscotting
- Rest of the chancel furniture replaced in Gothic style in 1930’s
MONUMENTS
- No monuments in the chancel
- North of the altar
- A large painting of the Virgin and Child
- Pre-Raphaelite style
- Signed E.Aveling Green, 1900
- A painted board with the royal arms also hangs on the north wall of the chancel
- According to the churchwardens accounts it was painted (or repainted) in 1724
- Over the north arcade
- White marble monuments on grey-black grounds
- One in memory of Frances Yeates (d.1816)
- Pedimented head over a cornice
- The other in memory of Anna Millar (d.1817)
- A rosette in each concave corner
- Most of the monuments are found in the south aisle
- All C19 and mostly white marble on grey-black ground
- Best are those similar two in memory of Samuel Waley (d.1819) and John Hine (d.1859)
- Also a good Gothic style white marble memorial
- To George Compton Read (d.1886) his wife Maria (d.1837)
- And their their children Chandos and Catherine
- Surround stands well proud of the plaque
- Features an ornate cusped arched enriched with crockets
- And a large poppyhead finial
- and carried on half-engaged columns with carved foliate caps
- Also here and spreading to the rear of the nave
- A number of brass plaques to members of the Torriano Family
- Genoan but chose to live in East Budleigh
- For several generations fought in the English army
- North aisle
- A notable white marble plaque on grey-black grounds
- Best is the memorial to Henry Flanke (d.1810)
- Includes a framing lamp and is signed Kingwill of Sidmouth
STAINED GLASS
- Some C19
- Some designed by Fulford as part of the 1884 renovation
- Made by Drake of Exeter
- Some early C20
- Art Nouveau style
- In the chancel
Other information
A good if unremarkable C15 Perpendicular-church boldly situated at the top of East
Budleigh Village High Street. It appears to be basically a one period church as
renovated in 1884 with a longer chancel.
The nave roof has good C15 carved bosses.
The church however is most remarkable for its complete set of early C16 oak benches
with their wonderful secular early C16 bench ends which are so evocative of the
families and occupations of East Budleigh at the time.
The benches contain a fine set of 250 embroidered kneelers made between 1974-76
This page contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0
