Marwood church of St Michael Basics
Listed building grade 1
Regularly open
Address
Marwood
Barnstaple
EX31 4EB
Geographical coordinates
51°07’07.6″N 4°04’54.5″W (enter these in your smartphone navigator)
Devonchurchland says…
A well built church nestling in the trees at the end of a dead end road, Marwood is one of the more famous North Devon churches.
Entering, there is a tall nave with in imposing roof, and then the benchends.
The Marwood benchends are all from the early 16th century and are a magnificent collection, worth spending a to of time enjoying these alone, full of age and a lost world.
There is not a lot of stained glass, but what there is is high quality, including two windows by the well respected Percy Bacon Brothers.
There’s a lovely memorial to the two young Peard lads who tragically died aged 16 and 19 within a month of each other. The whole design is another insight into life back in the day.
The Victorian font is marvellous, a real delight, topped by a powerful sculpture by John Robinson, an internationally renowned sculptor.
Even after all these magnificences the top of the treasure pile has to be the 16th rood screen in the north aisle. It is mind blowing, covered in detailed carving, faces and demons and spirits and foliage, it is one of the best in the country let alone the county.
All in all, if you are in North Devon, this is one to catch for sure.
Outline
PLAN
- Chancel
- Nave
- North aisle
- South transept
- South porch
- West tower
AGE
- C13 fabric to chancel
- Nave, rest of north aisle and upper stages of tower principally C15
- Late C19 refenestration and reroofing
- Slate roof of late C19 slates
- Ridge resting on nave and chancel
Exterior
WEST TOWER
- 3 stages with pentagonal stair turret on north side with 6 small square openings
- Embattled parapet set-back buttresses to first stage only
- Elongated gravestone apparently designed to be fixed onto eastern buttress of south wall
- Small square-headed opening on south and east side of second stage
- Four 2-light cusped bell-openings with quatrefoil tracery in the heads
- Pierced in east and south wall but blocked to north and west
- All have pointed labels with returned ends.
- Slate louvres below tracery
- Mostly recut Perpendicular window at west end
- C15 west door with Pevsner ‘B-type’ moulding and flat-pointed arch
NORTH AISLE
- 6 bays of straightheaded Perpendicular windows
- 3 lights each
- Slightly curved arches
- North door between second and third window from west end
- Hollow chamfered flat pointed arch
- Small round-headed niche above
- East end C14 3-light window
- Reset probably in C17
- Pointed-arch heads under gentle ogee arches
VARIOUS
- Two lancets to north side (recent) of chancel
- South transept with single lancet in east wall
PORCH
- Pointed south doorway
- Embattled south porch with flat-pointed arch supported on Pevsner ‘A-type’ moulded piers
- Small unceiled waggon roof of porch with some re-used timber
- C14 south doorway with small foliated corbels
- International timed sundial dated 1762 by one John Berry
- Two square-headed perpendicular style windows to each side of porch
- 3-lights with carved leaves in the spandrels
Interior
ARCADE
- 5 bays with ‘B-type’ piers.
- Capitals from western respond have:
- ’Green man’ foliage and berries
- Then 3 fluerons between plain shields
- Then two piers with interlaced fern and leaf decoration
- Then one with continuous fern pattern and interlaced leaves in eastern respond
ROOFS
- Unceiled waggon roofs to chancel, nave, north aisle and south transept
- Some inserted timber to nave and chancel roof, but substantially intact
- North aisle more complete with carved bosses in the intersections of the ribs
NORTH AISLE
- At west end large plasterwork Royal Arms
- 1763
- Datestone on its outside wall may indicate date of its erection
- Battered plinth in north aisle
- Indicates former north transept and original cruciform plan
INTERNAL WALLS
- Spanning north aisle only
- Very fine C16
- Pevsner ‘A type’ tracery
- Complete ribbed coving of 3 bays
- Now missing its gallery front
- Gallery back remains
- Richly carved panels
- Recording the name of ‘Sir John Beaupul’, Parson of Marwood holding office in 1520
- Renaissance influence in carving
- Similar to work by the carver of Atherington screen
VARIOUS
- Early rectangular font bowl lies at west end
- Replacement font with cover carved by John Robinson
- Some medieval floor tiles remain
- Principally rear of new C17 pulpit
- South transept has raised plain wooden pointed arch door
- Opening to blocked rood loft
BENCHES AND BENCHENDS
- 13 C16 pews in nave 2.5 metres wide
- Ornamental carved bench ends and moulded backs
- 3 choir stalls on north side with misericords
MONUMENTS
- East wall of north aisle
- Marble wall tablet with loric colonettes
- Flanking inscription to Anne Chichester of Westcote (died 1664)
- Marble wall tablet with loric colonettes
- North wall of north aisle
- Monument by J Berry
- Urn and pedestal over Doric columns
- Frieze with inscription to an owner of Ley (died 1765)
- Medallion below has palmettes with hour-glass above
- Marble wall monument to William Parminter (died in Panama – 1737)
- Inquisitor General for the South Sea Company
- Other members of his family
- Inscription “This monument having lost its hold on the wall where it had been fixed-fell on the floor and was much mutilated. A grateful recollection of a respectable Ancestry imposed the necessity of its re-erection on a Surviving Descendant C1821’
- Corinthian pillars
- Seated figures to each side of armorial shield and urn
- Monument by J Berry
- South wall of nave
- Marble wall tablet dated 1633
- Ionic colonnettes to each side of tablet
- Hour glass in pendant
- Monument to William and Anthony Peard
- Died 1652 aged 16 and 19
- Two busts in high relief leaning on table with skull and hour glass
- Shields above with plaque below
- Painted medallions with biblical inscriptions in surround to each side
- Marble wall tablet dated 1633
STAINED GLASS
- Two windows by Percy Bacon Bros
- East Window
- Gabriel, Michael and Raphael
- South Transept
- Christ with St Lawrence and St George
Other information
Notable for its benchends and its magnificent roodscreen.
This page contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0
