Little Torrington Church of St Giles Basics
Listed building grade 2*
Regularly open
Address
Little Torrington
Torrington
EX38 8PS
Geographical coordinates
50°55’51.1″N 4°08’54.2″W (enter these in your smartphone navigator)
Devonchurchland says…
A sweet little church with a parish along the banks of the River Torridge, it sits in a pretty village with a marvellous church gate and a peaceful churchyard.
Inside the pillars are fifteenth century granite from Lundy Island, about 25 miles offshore, with religious symbols on their capitals.
The chancel has been beautifully decorated by the Victorian restorers; great stencilling on the walls and two magnificent wall paintings on either side of the altar, showing St Giles and St Boniface.
The altar itself has some lovely angel paintings and a good alabaster altar back (reredos), in a sea of lovely floor tiles.
The font is mighty impressive, either Norman or, just possibly, late Saxon. The Jacobean font cover with its cute dove of the Holy Spirit is a charm as well.
There is a very fine memorial in white marble by Peter Rouw the Junior of London in the nave showing a woman weeping. It is really very good; nor surprising as Rouw was so famous in his day, and did commissions for the great and the good of his time.
The stained glass does not disappoint either, especially a beautiful Virgin Mary from the nineteenth century.
All in all, a little church well worth enjoying for an hour or two.
Outline
PLAN
- Nave
- South aisle
- Porch
- West tower
AGE
- C15
- Restored 1852-8 by Rev. George de. C. Guille
BUILT FROM
- Stone rubble walls
- Rendered tower
- Gable ended slate roofs
Exterior
WEST TOWER
- 3 stages with diagonal buttresses
- Castellated parapets
- Obelisk finials
- 2 light belfry openings with 4-centred arches
- C15 4-centred arched west doorway
- Roll and hollow moulding
- Inscribed scroll stops
- Slits for stair on north side
NAVE NORTH WALL
- 3 Perpendicular 2 and 3-light red sandstone windows
CHANCEL
- 3-light restored Perpendicular east window
- Carved headstop
- south chancel wall
- C15 style cinquefoiled restored light
PORCH
- Gabled
- C15 4-centred arched doorway
- Roll moulding
- Early C19 panelled doors
VESTRY
- Gabled
- C19
- Projects from north end of chancel
SOUTH AISLE
- Perpendicular style restored red sandstone windows
Interior
NAVE
- Tall 4-centred double chamfered tower arch.
- The pulpit dates from the restoration
- Incorporates older carving
- Reputedly from the old rood screen
- Roofs have been entirely restored but copied from originals.
- Norman font of subdivided cushion shape
- On C15 stem
- Colonnetes at corners
ARCADE
- 4 bay
- Pevsner A-type piers
- Various religious devices carved on capitals
- Moulded 4-centred arches
PORCH
- Medieval wagon roof
- Moulded ribs
- Carved bosses
- Wall-plates
- South doorway has 4-centred chamfered rubble arch
- Contemporary heavy studded plank door
- Cover strips
INTERNAL WALLS
- C20 render
- Apart from stencil decoration to chancel walls
MONUMENT
- Good memorial on north wall
- White marble
- By Peter Rouw the Junior of London
- Henry Stevens of Cross (q.v.)
- Died 1802
- Above the inscribed plaque is a bas relief of a mourning woman
- Classical robes
- Leaning over a sarcophagus.
- Various other early-mid C17 marble memorials
- Mainly to members of the Stevens family
Other information
The church appears entirely Perpendicular in style, and was heavily restored in 1852-8 when the chancel was enlarged and the north and south walls partly rebuilt. The tower was restored in 1898 when its screen and new oak stalls were put in.
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