Sourton Church of St Thomas of Canterbury Basics
Listed building grade 2*
Regularly open
Address
Church of St Thomas of Canterbury
Sourton
Okehampton
EX20 4HN
Geographical coordinates
50°41’37.6″N 4°04’27.3″W (enter these in your smartphone navigator)
Devonchurchland says…
The positioning of this church is just wonderful, high on the western slopes of Dartmoor with a clear view over West Devon and into Cornwall. On a clear day, the sunset from Sourton Tor above the church is hard to beat.
It is also situated right next to an ancient track up onto the High Moor, used for millennia to take cattle and sheep from faraway parishes to summer on the rich grazing up there. These well defined customs went back as arguably as far as the Iron Age. History is deep here.
Sourton church is fifteenth century, the chancel restored but still showing signs of the fourteenth.
It is a simple church, granite and rubble on the outside with a lovely tower, peaceful inside.
The wall plate on the north aisle has some pretty carved angels, naive for sure and such darlings, along with some other delights.
There is also a very good Charles II coat of arms, flouncing all over as the best do, a real beauty.
It’s the simple, quiet glamour of the place that is the real winner, both inside and out, with the wild moors tumbling down to lap against its eastern end and the tamed fields rolling away west. Marvellous.
Outline
PLAN
- Nave
- Chancel
- North aisle
- West tower
- South porch
AGE
- C14 chancel
- Rebuilt in 1848
- The rest C15
- Restored in 1881
BUILT FROM
- The chancel walls are of local stone rubble
- Otherwise the walls are of granite ashlar
- Gable ended slate roofs
- C19 coping stones to gables
Exterior
WEST TOWER
- 3-stage
- Crenellated
- 4 plain pinnacles
- Set back buttresses with off-sets
- Chamfered plinth
- 2-light straight-headed belfry lights
- West doorway has a 4-centred stone arch
- Hollow and roll moulding
- Arched hoodmould
- Continues as a stringcourse
- West window is granite
- 3 lights
- Simple tracery in the Decorated style
- Probably restored.
- Above the window is an arched hoodmould
- Continues as the stringcourse
NAVE SOUTH SIDE
- Coved stone cornice
- Chamfered plinth
- Window to the east is probably original,
- Granite
- 3 cinquefoiled lights
- Central one taller
- To the west of the porch is a 2-light mullion window
- Probably restored mullion
- Cinquefoiled head
SOUTH PORCH
- Single storey
- Gabled
- Plain rubble stone arched doorway
- Chamfered imposts
- Above a slate sundial
CHANCEL
- East window
- 3-light C19 restoration
- Decorated style
- South side of the chancel has 2 windows
- Similar 2-light restored Decorated style window to the left
- Single trefoiled lancet to its right
- Granite
- Arched hoodmould
- Probably original
NORTH AISLE
- 2-light straight-headed chamfered granite mullion window
- In its west wall
- Likely to have been inserted in the C17
- 2 north windows
- Moulded granite jamb
- Chamfered mullions with cinquefoiled heads
- Right-hand window has had its head restored
- Is 2-light
- The other is original
- 3 lights
- Both have square hoodmoulds
- Between the 2 is a buttress
- East end of the aisle is a 2-light granite window
- Very simple late Perpendicular tracery
- Aisle has a coved granite cornice
- Chamfered plinth
Interior
VARIOUS
- Rendered in the C20
- 3-bay granite arcade to north aisle
- Depressed 4-centred arches
- Pevsner A-type piers
- Deep moulded cup capitals
- Moulded bases
- Similar tall 4-centred chancel arch
- Springs from a corbel on the left-hand side
- Tall rendered pointed tower arch
- Rood screen removed
- Opening to stairs survives
- Squint from the aisle to the chancel.
- Seating is C19
- Large royal coat of arms of Charles II
- On north wall
- Formerly in the tower
- C20 granite font
ROOFS
- Over the nave and aisle are wagon roofs
- Incorporate some old timbers.
- Nave roof carvings in high relief to its purlins and principal rafters
- Some old colouring of red and gold surviving
- Bosses and wall-plates renewed
- Aisle roof is very similar
- But uncoloured
- Also preserves its old wall-plate on the north side
- Has crude carved angels holding shields
- Chancel roof completely renewed
PORCH
- Plastered wagon roof
- Remains of holy water stoup
- Granite south doorway
- Acute 4-centred arch
- Hollow chamfer
- Worn steps
Other information
The chancel probably has the earliest origins dating back to the C14, although it was substantially rebuilt in 1848
Rest of the Church is C15
The aisle judging from its windows is late C15 but it may postdate the nave and tower
The south porch has no dateable features and was probably also largely rebuilt in the C19. The Church was restored in 1881
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