Ipplepen Church of St Andrew Basics
Listed building grade 1
Regularly open
Address
Church of St Andrew
Ipplepen
Newton Abbot
TQ12 5QA
Geographical coordinates
50°29’13.7″N 3°38’41.7″W (enter these in your smartphone navigator)
Devonchurchland says…
Ipplepen is a major South Devon church with Norman origins and a 15th century rebuild.
The rood screen is a beauty, well restored in 1898 and still with a lot of the original carving, plus the wondrous medieval painted saints and prophets along the wainscoting.
In the chancel is a fine altar back, probably Edwardian and a definite one-off, plus three Kempe windows, including a marvellous East Window.
Plenty of other stained glass too, plus some fine medieval.
There is a tremendously elegant 18th century set of stairs, leading to an even more tremendously magnificent 15th century carved wooden pulpit with its original colouring; regardless of age and history, the artistry alone is enough to daze the mind.
A very well-cared church too, and delight to visit.
Outline
PLAN
- Nave
- North and south aisles with chapels
- West tower
- South 2-storey porch
AGE
- Mainly Perpendicular
- C15 incorporating some earlier fragments
- Chancel possibly C14
- Consecrated in 1318
BUILT FROM
- Rendered limestone sandstone walls
- Exposed to chancel
- Gabled slate roof to nave and chancel
- Flat zinc roofs to aisles
Exterior
WEST TOWER
- Tall, tapering
- 3 stages,
- Set back buttresses at corners
- Battlemented with 8 low pinnacles
- Pentagonal stair turret at centre of south side
- Very small arched lights
- Belfry openings, at ringing stage
- 2 rounded arched lights
- West doorway is wide 4-centred granite arch
- Roll moulding
- Set back behind outer arch of volcanic rock and red sandstone
- Which has hollow chamfer
- Late C19 restored 4-light Perpendicular west window
- Small single arched light on second stage
SOUTH AISLE
- East window probably C19 restoration
- But in Decorated style
- Star tracery similar to that at Staverton Church
- Probably original carved headstops to hoodmould
- South aisle battlemented
- Set back buttresses at corners
- Intermediate between windows
- Restored 4-light Perpendicular windows
CHANCEL
- Early C20 restored 5-light Perpendicular east window
- Carved headstops
- Buttresses set back from corners
- Similar restored 3-light window on south side
- To its left is C15 priest’s door in red sandstone
- 4-centred arch
- Chamfered with pyramid stops
- Arched hoodmould above
PORCH
- 2-storey battlemented
- Small square headed light on east wall
- Red Sandstone 4-centred arched doorway
- Hollow chamfer rebated behind chamfered surround
- 4-centred arched light above
- With leaded panes
- Over that is a slate sundial
- Dated 1713
- Corbelled rubble roof
- Stone seats
- Holy water stoup in east wall
- Chamfered arched opening
- Projecting stone bowl
- South doorway Early English
- Transitional from Norman
- Slightly pointed chamfered arch
- Red sandstone and Beer stone blocks
- Very heavy roll and hollow moulding to semi-circular arched architrave
- Which has depressed keystone
- Probably C16 very heavy oak studded door
- Decorative strap hinges
NORTH AISLE
- Polygonal stair turret at north-west corner
- Which led to former west gallery
- Has 1 slit opening
- Aisle and turret are battlemented
- 6 north windows
- All probably C19 restorations
- Perpendicular tracery in Bath stone
- Intermediate buttresses
- North doorway under divided buttress
- Has re-used Norman tympanum in red sandstone
- Carving of a Maltese cross and a bird, probably a swan, is discernable
- Has been damage when the stone was hacked off to fit the present doorway
- Flat roofed circa early C20 extension
- Between north aisle and chapel
- Has trefoil-headed windows
Interior
VARIOUS
- Plain unchamfered tower arch
- Chamfered imposts
- Stone newel stairs to porch chamber
- And in west corner of each aisle
- Which formerly led to the gallery
- Removed in 1883
- Restored wagon roof to nave and chancel,
- C20 flat panelled ceilings to aisles
- C15 octagonal Beer stone font
- Alternate quatrefoils and shields in panels
- 2-light trefoil-headed niches on pillar
- 3 of which contain carved figures
CHANCEL
- Piscina in the south wall
- 2-centred arched opening
- To its right is a sedilia of 3 stepped oak seats
- Altar rails dated 1724
- Barley-twist type
ARCADES
- 6-bay arcade to aisles
- Octagonal red sandstone piers
- With shallow Beer stone capitals
- Moulded at the top
- Carved with fleurons and human faces
- Some capitals have plain unchiselled blocks, as if unfinished
- The bases vary, some have been replaced
- Original ones have cushion stops
- Chamfered 4-centred arches to arcade in red sandstone
ROOD SCREEN
- C15 rood screen extends across nave and both aisles
- Heavily restored in 1898
- Coving completely replaced
- Frieze and tracery (Pevsner Type A) also partially renewed
- The panelling is largely original
- Painted with the figures of the 24 Elders, the 12 apostles and the 12 prophets
- Most southerly 2 sections of panelling (unpainted) were replaced during restoration
- Parclose screens to chapel either side
PULPIT
- Fine C15
- Richly carved and painted
- On tapering stem
- 5 panels which originally contained statues
- Have crocketed canopies
- Carved decoration of vine foliage and fruit
- C18 steps added to pulpit
- Turned newels,
- Turned and moulded balusters
- Curtail step and carved brackets
MONUMENT
- There are several C17 ledger-stones
- In the nave
- A red sandstone one of 1650 and 1692
- To William and Elizabeth Crosson
- The latter of whom was daughter of John Crossing Gent of Dornafield (q.v.)
- At the front of the nave
- A red sandstone memorial of 1653
- To Henry Full of Ambrooke (q.v.)
- With a rhyming epitaph at the centre
- At the rear of the nave
- One of 1652 to Margaret Full of Ambrooke
- With a worn epitaph at the centre
- On the wall of the south aisle
- A large ornately carved plaster memorial
- To several members of the Neyle family of Ambrook
- Erected by William Neyle in 1727
- With the family coat of arms
- Above the south door
- Royal coat of arms dated 1725
STAINED GLASS
- The 3 chancel windows date from 1906
- Memorial gifts
- Work of C E Kempe
- The glass in the east window of the south chapel by Drake of Exeter
Other information
Both aisles and the chancel have a chamfered plinth.
This is a well-preserved C15 church with some interesting earlier fragments and good
quality interior fittings
This page contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0
