North Bovey Church of St John the Baptist Basics
Listed building grade 1
Regularly open
Address
North Bovey
Moretonhampstead
TQ13 8RA
Geographical coordinates
50°38’25.8″N 3°47’03.1″W (enter these in your smartphone navigator)
Devonchurchland says…
A very pretty village on the edge of High Dartmoor, North Bovey has an even prettier church. It sits just above an ancient river crossing, and how long there has been a Christian presence here is wonderful to imagine. Norman definitely, Saxon most probably, Ancient British gorgeously possible.
It is a traditional moorland church, granite on granite on granite and all the better for that, set in a magical churchyard.
The granite arch of the west door is well worth time spent studying. Huge blocks of granite to create a simple entrance. Very modern in a sense.
Inside it is a little treasure house.
The roodscreen is full of intricate carving, though what is original what has been brought from other churches is an ongoing discussion.
Note the screen doorway, with its figures, probably the apostles. This is definitely original.
The chancel is from the 1200s and shows it with a simple beauty and a couple of original lancet windows either side.
In the chancel there are also some very impressive medieval roof bosses and wall plate medallions with extremely powerful faces. The colouring is later, but still…
Check out the south chapel too, with its altar adapted form original medieval carving and its ancient piscina.
In the nave there some very good medieval bench ends from the 1400s and 1500s, a goodly granite font and a more recent pulpit.
At the back of the nave there are some paintings fo the Four Evangelists from the previous pulpit that are charming.
Some really lovely Victorian stained glass completes this church, with a few bits of medieval as well.
Not to forget the internal space and ambience; silently serene does it every time.
Well worth visiting this one, along with the village, and Manaton church is short trip away too.
Outline
PLAN
- Nave
- Narrower chancel
- North and south aisles
- West tower
- Single storey south porch
AGE
- C13 chancel
- Remainder C15
- Perpendicular throughout except for C13 chancel
- Various C19 and early C20 restorations
BUILT FROM
- Most walls are rendered
- Lower 2 stages of tower granite ashlar
- Granite ashlar and volcanic stone detail
- Slate roof to nave chancel and aisles
- Crested ridge tiles
- Granite coping stones and kneelers
Exterior
WEST TOWER
- Unbuttressed of 3 stages
- Doorway on west side
- Jambs and arch each constructed out of 2 massive granite blocks,
- Pointed 4-centred arch
- Roll and hollow moulding and ball stops
- Relieving arch above
- Window above
- Probably late C19 replacement
- Relieving arch
- Second stage south side a very small slit window opening
- Arched head
- East side second stage
- Small single light square-headed window opening
- Third stage
- Round headed 2-light belfry openings at third stage
- Except for north side
- 2 single light openings
- Pentagonal stair turret projection on north side
- Slit window openings
- Battlemented at the top, rising above the battlementation of the tower
- 4-sided pinnacle at each corner with ball finials
NORTH AISLE
- Buttresses set back from corners between windows
- The plinth continues from the tower
- 3-light Perpendicular traceried windows
- Original jambs and hoodmoulds
- Tracery replaced in volcanic stone
- Also the mullion of the west window in granite
- Between 2 most easterly windows on the north side is semi-hexagonal rood stair turret projection
- Moulded granite capping
CHANCEL
- No plinth
- North side a plain lancet window
- 4-centred head
- East window replaced in 1874
- Volcanic stone
- 3-light Perpendicular style
- South side a single light window
- 4-centred head
- To its left is priest door
- 4-centred arched granite surround
- Hollow chamfered
SOUTH AISLE CHAPEL
- The plinth starts again
- East window original moulded granite jambs
- hoodmould
- Mullions replaced in granite and tracery in volcanic stone in C19
SOUTH AISLE
- Buttresses set back from corners of south aisle and intermediate ones between windows
- 3-light Perpendicular traceried windows on the south side
- Most easterly window retains its original granite mullions and jambs
- Tracery and hoodmould replaced in volcanic stone
- The 2 windows to its left retain only their original jambs, the rest replaced
- Window to the left of the porch is the same
PORCH
- Gabled
- Appears to have been added as it partially overlaps a buttress of the south aisle
- Probably late C15
- Setback buttresses
- Plinth follows the same course as on the south aisle
- Doorway has roll and hollow moulding to its granite jambs on inside and out
- Cushion stops on the outside
- Pointed 4-centred arch
Interior
CHANCEL
- South wall a plain piscina
- Granite memorial slabs to former rectors
- William Hambert (died 1670)
- George Line (died 1684)
NORTH CHAPEL
- Arched stone doorway to rood stairs
- Square-headed stone doorway at the top
SOUTH CHAPEL
- Altar comprised of panels of Medieval panelling, possibly re-used
- Similar to the panelling of the screen
- Restored in its original colours
- Piscina in south wall
- Trefoil-headed opening
- Carved spandrels
NAVE
- Octagonal stone pillars and capitals to either aisle
- Slight variation of squatter bases to south aisle
- Taller ones to north aisle
- Both arcades have 4-centred arches
- Granite voussoir arch to tower supported on chamfered jambs
- Chamfered stone projecting inwards from the springing of the arch either side
- Number of C17 granite tomb slabs in the aisles and nave
- Some decorative
- Granite octagonal font
- Carved panels on each face
- Moulded pedestal.
- The carved oak pulpit dates from 1910
- Replaces an C18 one
ROOFS
- The nave roof was treated for infested woodwork in 1955
- Much repaired and any bosses and moulded timbers were presumably destroyed
- Basic wagon roof structure survives
- C20 boarding in between
- The aisles have similar roof structure
- Moulded ribs, carved wall-plates and uncoloured bosses surviving
- Probably C15
- Wagon roof to the chancel is particularly interesting for its bosses
- Some purely decorative, others are pictorial or symbolic
- Wall-plates to the chancel also have carved decorative and symbolic medallions
PORCH
- Porch
- Wagon roof
- Moulded ribs and wall plates with bosses
- Bosses also at either end of collar purlin
- Holy water stoup in east wall
Stone seats either side with chamfered edge - Doorway to church has 2-centred granite arch with plain chamfer
SCREENS
- Fine late C15 timber rood screen across nave and both aisles
- Much mutilated by restoration probably by Rev W H Thornton 1874-6
- Pevsner Type A
- Perpendicular lights and pointed tracery
- At least 3 different types of panelling
- Carving in spandrels mutilated and considerably replaced
- Chancel doorway has jambs decorated with carved figures
- Each standing under a crocketed canopy as at nearby Manaton Church
- Cornice is mainly original
- Alternate grapes and birds with running vine leaf
- Whole is coated with a dark brown paint
- Parclose screens either side of chancel
- Square-headed tracery and doorways
- Each has 1 early carved bench end attached at the west side of the doorway
- Both also coated with brown paint
PEWS AND BENCH ENDS
- The church was mainly re-seated in 1919 during the restoration by Sir Charles Nicholson.
- Some Medieval benchends
- One has the initials W.P.
- Possibly referring to William Pipard, an early Lord of the Manor.
- Another is more Renaissance in design
- Head of a man wearing a hat with a feather in it.
Below are 2 Tudor roses in circular plaques - Beneath which is a plant with a human face sprouting from the top
- Head of a man wearing a hat with a feather in it.
STAINED GLASS
- Fragments of Medieval glass survive in the upper tracery of the north window to the north chapel
- Emblems of the 4 evangelists
- Remainder of the window glass is mid-late C19 and early C20,
- Some of which are commemorative
- On the north side the glass is frosted
- On the south side it is clear
Other information
Set in a beautiful position in a very pretty Dartmoor village
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