Hemyock Church of St Mary Basics
Listed building grade 2*
Regularly open
Address
Church of St Mary
Hemyock
Exeter
EX15 3RA
Geographical coordinates
50°54’44.5″N 3°13’50.0″W (enter these in your smartphone navigator)
Devonchurchland says…
A fascinating church way up in North East Devon, with a striking interior and a real puzzle of a structural history.
The west tower is Norman but there are indications that it used to be the crossing tower of a much bigger Norman church, with some old arches still visible on the inside of the tower. Though with all the extensive alterations over time the sorting out of this puzzle is for the dedicated and very curious.
Inside the nave is filled with strikingly designed Victorian pews, very powerful and a very good.
Then there is an elegant west gallery, well worth attention.
The chancel is low and small, maybe on the original Norman footprint at the least? It has a red ceiling which really makes its presence felt.
In the chancel as well are two chairs with fine early C17 carved backs, converted from a chest.
Good use of stained glass all over, some images and some patterned, all contributing to a lovely atmosphere in this modestly entrancing church.
Outline
PLAN
- West tower
- South tower porch
- Nave
- North and south aisles
- South porch
- Chancel
- North-east chancel chapel and vestry
- Richard Carver virtually rebuilt the entire body of the churching the C19
AGE
- Early Norman tower
- C15 alterations
- Largely destroyed when the church was partially rebuilt in 19th century
- Renovations by Richard Carver of Taunton
BUILT FROM
- Random rubble flint
- Ham Hill stone dressings
- Slate roofs
AGE PUZZLE
- The tower and part of the ground plan were retained.
- The tower has early Norman arches to the north, south and east
- There is no evidence of a west arch
- Although it may have been destroyed when the late C19 west window was inserted
- The north arch alone is visible externally
- No masonry joint between the west face of the tower and the adjoining south tower porch
- The quoining of the south-west angle of the tower stops at the level of the parapet of the porch
- This suggests that it is a contemporary build
- The north-west angle has been disturbed by the addition of a buttress
- Furthermore the south wall of the tower porch is on the line of the old nave south wall
- The present south arcade
- Ie. the tower arch facing the nave and the chancel arch are off centre to the present nave
- The possibility of the west tower having once been a crossing tower has been suggested, Although the close proximity of a stream to the west
- And the lack of any evidence of a west tower arch present problems for this interpretation
- The puzzle is complicated further by the existence of a medieval flight of stairs
- Runs from the tower porch to what is now a west nave gallery
- The point at which the stairs enter the nave west wall
- Between the line of the present south arcade and the south impost of the Norman east tower arch
- Where can they have led originally?
- Possibly there was a screen intended to house relics
- Cf. the screen at Ottery St Mary at the west end of the Lady Chapel
Exterior
WEST TOWER
- 3 stages
- Battlemented
- Blocked Norman arch to north
- South tower porch also battlemented (see above)
- 3-light late C19 Perpendicular window
- No west door
- Lancets to second stage
- 2-light square-headed belfry openings
- C15
- That to the south blocked by an inserted clock face
- Weathervane
SOUTH SIDE
- 3 bays including porch
- With steeply pointed arch and diagonal buttresses
- 3-light late C19 Decorated Ham Hill stone windows
CHANCEL
- C19 fenestration
- Except for the east window
- May be medieval
- With uncusped intersecting tracery
NORTH SIDE
- 4-bay
- Easternmost north window possibly early C16,
- Others C19
Interior
NAVE & AISLE
- 3-bay arcade
- Octagonal piers
- Double-chamfered arches
- C19 arched brace roof to nave
- Ceiled plaster ceiling to chancel
- Good set of 1840s benches
- Arch between chancel and north chancel chapel is wide
- With an openwork trumeau
- Perhaps early C16
- Norman tower arches
- Unchamfered flat imposts
- Capitals with chamfer
- Abaci narrow but set deeply into the walls
WEST GALLERY
- Good gallery supported on slender posts
- Arcaded
- Decorated frontal
FONT
- Early
- Bowl Saxon or Norman (C13) period
- Probably of Purbeck marble
- Square bowl with round-headed blind arcade
- Supported on 4 detached shafts
- The shaft being of Perpendicular date
CHANCEL
- A pointed and cusped recess in the sanctuary east wall
- Piscina in south aisle
- Stone reredos
STAINED GLASS
- An important 1840s east window
- Armorial shields
- Completely pre-Ecclesiological
- Chancel south probably Clayton and Bell
MONUMENTS
- Sanctuary north
- Plaque (to Rev. J Land, d. 1817)
- Shelf above
- Supporting the scholar’s books
- Opposite it a marble mural monument
- To various members of the Rayner family
Other information
The interior is spacious, it having been enlarged, reseated, and partly rebuilt in 1847.
Although extensive, Carver’s work respected certain intriguing peculiarities of the medieval
plan.
This page contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0
