Marystow Church of St Mary The Virgin Basics
Listed building grade 1
Regularly open
Address
Church of St Mary the Virgin
Marystowe
Lifton
PL16 0JA
Geographical coordinates
50°37’25.7″N 4°12’53.7″W (enter these in your smartphone navigator)
Devonchurchland says…
Standing alone with just a couple of houses nearby in the stunning West Devon countryside, this has a delectable outside with some beautiful old windows, some restored but none the worse for that.
The interior though has one of the best early 17th century monuments in Devon. It is seriously impressive, especially the way it has taken over the north chapel as if the church belongs to it rather than the other way round.
A fine decorated triumphal arch rises above the effigies of Sir Thomas and Lady Margaret Wyse, and around the sides are statues of their children and possible grand children. They still have some of their original colour, and the stone carving quality is magnificent, especially the lace all neatly showing.
The chancel is a very good Victorian makeover, with some good wall tiles, and happily they have left the 14th century sedilia (seats for the clergy) and windows from the same era.
The Victorian pews are a bit of alright too, very nice indeed, along with the slightly later pulpit (1903) with some delicious foliage carving of oak leaves and acorns.
There is a very good Norman font too, with well carved sides and heads at each corner.
Part of the old 16th century screen has been reused as the tower screen, a nice sight.
There is also the quality of the arcade, the pillars and arches of the north aisle, which really are well done.
A fine church in a beautiful part of Devon.
Outline
PLAN
- West Tower
- Nave
- Chancel
- North aisle
- North chancel chapel
- South Porch
- Vestry
AGE
- Parts of the south doorway C12
- Chancel possibly partly C12 and C14
- Nave, north aisle, north chancel chapel and tower late C15 and C16
- Porch probably C16
- Vestry extension C19
BUILT FROM
- Largely local stone rubble
- Upper parts of the tower and front of the porch
- Dressed granite brought to course
- Granite and freestone dressings
- Asbestos slate roof
Exterior
WEST TOWER
- Upper parts rebuilt in granite in 1824 (Pevsner)
- 3-stage battlemented tower
- Diagonal buttresses
- Internal north west stair turret with slit window
- Buttresses have set-offs
- Rise to the string course below the battlementing
- Terminate in octagonal corner pinnacles external to the parapet
- Crowned with obelisk finials
- The west face has a shallow-moulded arched west doorway
- Hoodmould
- 3-light C19 granite arched Perpendicular west window
- Hoodmould formed by the rising string
- East face the string course rises to form the hoodmould of a tall rectangular chamfered opening
- At bellringers stage
- Has a stanchion and saddle bars
- 2-light chamfered square-headed belfry openings to all 4 faces
NAVE
- South wall masonry very patched
- Pilaster buttress at the east of the wall
- May mark the opening of a former transept
- 2-light square-headed granite window to the west of the porch looks late C19 or C20
- To the east of the porch a tall 3-light arched C15 Perpendicular window
- With a moulded architrave
- Then a very large 4-light uncusped square-headed granite C16 window
- With hoodmould
- Opposed to a similar window in the north aisle
- Disturbance to the masonry below the window
- Suggests that it may have been inserted in the position of an opening to the former transept
CHANCEL
- East wall has a coped gable
- Kneelers
- 3-light Decorated C19 east window
- With hoodmould
- A straight joint between the east and south walls
- And a pilaster buttress at the east of the south wall
- Suggests that the east wall has been rebuilt
- 2 Decorated 2-light windows on the south wall
- With hoodmoulds
- Are C19 restorations of C14 windows
- The easternmost window is small and set hight under the eaves
- To allow for the C14 double sedilia inside
NORTH AISLE
- Arched 3-light Perpendicular C19 window to the east wall
- 2 C15 arched freestone Perpendicular windows
- With hoodmoulds
- To the west of the 3-light C16 granite window
- West window of the aisle is a 3-light arched Perpendicular C19 window
- Hoodmould
- 2-bay C19 addition on the north side
- 2 gables to the north
- two 2-light granite C19 Decorated windows
- Hoodmoulds
PORCH
- Coped gable
- Slate roof
- Almost round-headed doorway
- Chamfered on both sides
- Canted boarded C19 roof
- Stone benches
- Holy water stoup
- A rectangular recess in the porch was apparently a fireplace
- The chimney has since been blocked
- Above the moulded arched circa early C16 inner doorway is an order of C12 moulding
- With a saltire cross and billet decoration
- Circa late C16/early C17 studded door
Interior
NAVE AND AISLE
- C19 timber chancel arch
- Widened at the south
- To take in the thickness of the south wall
- 6-bay C15 north arcade
- 2 bays to the chancel
- Granite monolith piers of 4 shafts and 4 hollow-chamfered arches
- The north aisle is equal in width to the chancel
- The unmoulded tower arch rises above the apex of the C19 roof
- 1903 5-sided drum pulpit
- Open traceried panels on a stem with struts
- Circa late 1860s bench ends and choir stalls
- Rectangular bench ends
- Variety of blind tracery designs and doors to each bench
- 1661 painted panel of the Royal Arms
- Several C17 memorial slabs used as paving
ROOFS
- C19 ceiled waggon nave roof
- With ribs and bosses
- Similar roofs to chancel and north aisle,
- The north aisle roof carried straight through to the north chancel chapel
- The C19 addition to the north chancel chapel has a single stone pier
- Repeating the mouldings of the C15 piers
- Supporting a double timber beam
OLD ROOD SCREEN
- 3-bays of the late C15/early C16 rood screen are re-used as the tower screen
- Including the doorway bay
- Wholly Gothic in character
- Screen has Pevsner A type tracery
- Deep blind tracery to the wainscot panels
- Wainscot paintings no longer exist
- But some traces of ancient colour survive on the screen
- The coving and rood loft have disappeared
FONT
- Fine C12
- Square bowl
- Chamfered corners
- Below 4 carved heads with angular profiles
- Has intersecting round-headed blind arcading carved on the sides of the bowl
- With a leaf ornament and frieze (qv Lifton)
- The bowl stands on a probably later chamfered stem and plinth
CHANCEL
- The south windows have C14 internal masonry
- C14 Beerstone inner arches
- The mouldings dying into the walls
- Fine C14 Decorated double sedilia with deep cusping
- Metal commandment boards and good east wall tiling
- Probably 1860s
NORTH CHANCEL CHAPEL
- Dominated by a massive monument to Sir Thomas Wise of Sydenham (av)
- Died 1629
- Described by Pevsner as “One of the most ambitious monuments in Devonshire”
- Monument is freestanding
- 2 recumbent effigies on a Caen stone base
- On a plinth
- With 4 pairs of Corinthian columns supporting a coffered arch
- Crowned with corner obelisks and armourial bearings
- Soffit of the arch is decorated with cherubim in panels
- Other members of the Wyse family
- Freestanding
- Are positioned on the plinth
- 2 three-quarter size kneeling figures face one another
- Across a prie-dieu at the head of the monument
- On the south side
- A small girl in an armchair
- A baby in a cradle
- Some of the figures are not in their original positions
- Some ancient colour survives
- An achievement, probably originally part of the Wise monument
- Fixed to the west wall of the C19 addition
- Consisting of a helmet with a lion crest, and a pair of gauntlets
MEMORIALS
- Exterior west wall of the church
- A good slate memorial to Grace Hawkins, died 1704 and Edward Hawkins, died 1713
- 2 oval inscription panels
- With cherubim and skulls and cross bones in the spandrels
- Divided by a central rectangular panel
- With flowers, hourglass and deaths head carved in relief
- South wall of the chancel
- Slate memorial to James Sergeant
- Died 1656
- With an inscription and verse within a decorated border
Other information
The survival of C14 work in the chancel is unusual in the county, and the grandness of the Wise monument makes this an outstanding building.
Of the C12 church, which was probably nave and chancel, a remnant of the south doorway survives and the chancel masonry may also be C12.
The masonry of the south wall suggests that there may have been a probably C13 transept and a cruciform C13 plan, with the chancel remodelled in the C14.
A north aisle and west tower were added in the C15 with some C16 alterations.
In the C19 a 2-bay extension, gabled to the North, was added to the north chancel chapel, the chancel was restored and the roofs replaced.
This page contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0
