Holcombe Burnell Church of St John the Baptist Basics
Listed building grade 2*
Regularly open
Address
Church of St John the Baptist
Longdown
Holcombe Burnell
Exeter
EX6 7RZ
Geographical coordinates
50°42’45.9″N 3°37’07.1″W (enter these in your smartphone navigator)
Devonchurchland says…
A beautiful position not far from Exeter, tucked away down a dead end lane, the glories of this church are stunning, especially considering its size. Yet another example of the quality of Devon’s churches.
The outside is a charming little church, with nicely coloured stone in a very pretty churchyard.
Above the south door is a Norman arch, with three carved heads, two nuns and a monk. A delight to find here.
Inside the remains of the rood screen are stunning, just two panels of wainscoting with painted figures on. The Annunciation on one is one of the best I have seen, not as technically accomplished as some but having a joy and vibrance missing from many. Really very, very good.
The other panel is by a different painter and shows the Visitation along with a couple of other saints. Very high quality, and would totally get my vote if the Annunciation hadn’t already invaded my heart.
The chancel itself is a fine example of early Victorian Neo-Gothic; great carving and exquisite lettering.
There is a sixteenth century Easter Sepulchre niche or maybe a monument, the debate is ongoing, in the chancel north wall. It is extraordinary. Quality Renaissance carving with a phenomenal sculpture of the Resurrection in the back wall.
A good medieval stained glass figure in the East Window, a fourteenth century alabaster carving of St Peter missing his head and a fine font and font cover all underline just how fascinating this church is.
Outline
PLAN
- West tower
- Nave and chancel with no external division
- 4-bay north aisle
- North east vestry
- South west porch
AGE
- Part of south doorway C12
- Arcade probably late C15 early C16
- Tower probably late C15
- Substantial rebuilding and enlargement of 1843 by John Hayward.
BUILT FROM
- Stone rubble
- Including Heavitree and volcanic stone
- Granite and freestone dressings
- Tower rough cast on east west and south faces
- North face with old render
- Slate roof
Exterior
WEST TOWER
- Battlemented, 2-stage
- Diagonal west buttresses and single angle east buttresses
- Battlemented polygonal north east stair turret
- Rising above the tower battlementing
- No pinnacles
- Low shallow-moulded west doorway
- Rounded arch
- Below a 3-light Perpendicular style window
- Traceried lights and a hood-mould
- North and south faces have slit windows at bellringer’s stage
- South window glazed
- North window shuttered
- 2-light chamfered belfry openings on all 4 faces
- North face opening shuttered
SOUTH WALL
- Two 1843 buttresses with set-offs
- 4 square-headed 2-light windows
- Hood-moulds and cusped lights
- In original embrasures with granite sills and jambs
CHANCEL
- East wall with a coped gable and diagonal buttresses
- Entirely 1843
- 3-light east window
- Perpendicular freestone tracery and a hood-mould
- Preserves the granite sill and jambs of the medieval east window.
- On the south side the nave is flush with the chancel
NORTH AISLE
- Two 1843 buttresses with set-offs
- 3-light Perpendicular style traceried windows at the east and west ends
- Medieval sills and jambs intact
- Three 3-light square-headed 1843 windows
- Trefoil-headed lights flush with the north wall
VESTRY
- Gabled to the north
- Stone gable end stack
- Plain chamfered doorway on the west wall
- 1-light chamfered window on the east wall
PORCH
- Coped gable
- Shallow-moulded outer doorway with a rounded arch
- Interior has a plain plastered roof
- Timber benches
- Inner doorway is a rounded red sandstone arch
- Probably 1843
- Below a C12 Beerstone arch
- Carved heads at either end and a carved head keystone
- Between the heads the arch is decorated with carved stone whorls.
Interior
NAVE AND VARIOUS
- Plastered walls
- No internal nave/chancel division
- Except for an additional rib in the roof and change in wall plate
- Unmoulded 2-centred tower arch
- Springing from chamfered imposts
- 1843 unceiled waggon roofs
- Moulded ribs and carved bosses (those in the nave painted)
- 2 sections of the wainscot of a late medieval rood screen
- Reused as a chancel screen
- Wainscot panels have unusually good paintings of saints for the county
- Apparently by 2 different hands
- Font is a late C15 10-sided bowl
- Quatrefoils carved in panels on a thick stem
- Trefoil-headed arcading
- Ancient colour survives on the conical timber font cover
- The pulpit, choir stalls and nave pews are all mid to late C20
- Various C17 tomb slabs are incorporated in the paving of the church
NORTH AISLE AND ARCADE
- 4-bay north arcade
- Easternmost bay narrower and lower
- Low octagonal granite monolith piers
- Chamfered capitals
- Rounded double-chamfered arches
- In the north aisle
- Unsigned wall monument to Richard Stephens died 1831, is notable
- On a large grey marble background a white marble inscription tablet with cornice
- Flanked by inverted torches
- Crowned by a draped broken column
- Fixed to a window sill is a small headless alabaster saint Peter
- Ancient colour
- Quality of the carving is high
- Date probably C14.
CHANCEL
- Interesting set of fittings
- East wall
- A crested stone screen of 1843
- Blind trefoil-headed arcading in the centre, immediately above the altar
- Stone panel is painted with an illuminated gilded text in Gothic script
- Unusual survival of an early Gothic Revival feature
- On either side of the east window
- Creed and commandments in panels with arched stone frames
- Gilded illuminated borders
- The altar said to be an adapted Elizabethan chest from Culver House
- High quality panels of blind tracery under ogee arches
- Between applied buttresses
- North wall of the chancel there is a remarkable tomb
- South side of the chancel a crested stone screen
- Divided into 2 arched cusped panels by buttresses
- Pinnacles
- Commemorates relations of Richard Stephens, died 1844
- Stone lettering in relief
EAST WINDOW
- Fragments of late medieval glass
- Including a complete kneeling figure with a scroll “IHS fili david miserere mei”
- Border fragments also survive and 2 coats of arms
- One is Dennis (qv Holcombe Burnell Barton) impaling a coat probably meant for Godolphin
- The second is argent a chevron between 3 bulls’ heads sable, countercharged
- The pictorial glass can be attributed to the Doddiscombsleigh atelier.
EASTER SEPULCHRE (?)
- Pevsner and Cresswell describe it as an Easter sepulchre and tomb
- Some debate about its date and evolution
- An ogee arched crocketted recess above a chest carved with 4 shields
- Flanked by tall buttresses
- Cornice above
- Above the cornice a frieze of Renaissance arabesques of high quality
- Similar arabesques and putti in the spandrels above the ogee arch
- Rear wall, under the recess, a panel of carving in high relief
- The Resurrection
- On either side of the panel shallower Renaissance carving of mermen and arabesques
- Pevsner implies that the whole design is mid C16
- Crewswell argues that the Renaissance detail was applied to an earlier Gothic design in the C16
- When the Easter sepulchre was adapted as a memorial to the Dennis family
- Buttresses flanking the tomb have clearly lost their pinnacles
- Resurrection carving is probably not of English origin
- An account of the church in 1843, prior to the restoration, refers to 2 kneeling women on the chest
Other information
Late Perpendicular style. The extent and character of the 1843 work makes it difficult to establish a dating sequence for the medieval period.
Of the C12 church a rounded arched doorway survives; the tower is probably late Perpendicular. The granite piers of the north arcade could be C14 Decorated but are more likely to be late Perpendicular, the rounded double chamfered arches of the arcade have been described as “restored”, but are similar to those at Exminster and Dunchideock.
The 1843 work involved extending the chancel to the east, re-roofing, replacing window tracery (mostly in original embrasures) and largely rebuilding the north aisle which was described as “ruinous” in 1843 (Davidson). The vestry was added, the chancel was refurbished, and the church reseated, it has been reseated subsequently in the C20.
The Hayward work of 1843 in a sympathetic Perpendicular style is substantial and the chancel fittings, glass and font are of especial interest.
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