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Home / Basics / Stoodleigh Church of St Margaret Basics

Stoodleigh Church of St Margaret Basics

Description
Gallery
Basics
Roof Boss Wood Carving Coloured Church Four Face Foliage 16th Century Stoodleigh

Listed building grade 2*

Regularly open

Address
Church of St Margaret
Stoodleigh
Tiverton
EX16 9PH

Geographical coordinates

50°57’33.1″N 3°32’10.1″W (enter these in your smartphone navigator)

Click here for more directions and church information

Devonchurchland says…

The ivy clad red tower is the first sight of this church, and it is a beaut, bringing to mind princesses and fairy tale romance. But inside…

The first thing to come to attention is the deep coloured light, a twilight church, because of the amount of stained glass. Unusually, and very luckily, they are all by the same maker, Hardman & Co. It is a real privilege to see a complete set of windows by the same maker and enjoy a series of interpretations of the bible from one artist.

Then there are the 16th century roof bosses up on high, a fantastical set with mermaids and double-headers, roughly carved and all the better for that. Take binoculars for these for sure. They are totally absorbing.

The actual architecture is a delight too, mainly from the Victorian restoration, and a lot of thought has gone into the sight lines and the stone details. Plenty to play with.

The chancel floor tiles are fascinating, Victorian but with a very later 20th century feel.

The Norman font with its carved heads is a fine survivor, as is a slumbering medieval fox on one of the pillars.

Always though there is that lovely twilit atmosphere, and something so well worth enjoying apart form all the other lovelies.

Outline

PLAN

  • West tower
  • Nave
  • Chancel
  • 4-bay south aisle
  • South chapel
  • South porch
  • Chancel roof carried down as catslide over north-east vestry

AGE

  • West tower, western bays of nave and aisle C15
  • Whole church thoroughly restored 1872-9 by Henry Woodyer
  • Church extended by one bay to the east
  • Chancel rebuilt

BUILT FROM

  • Medieval masonry rubble
  • C19 masonry snecked stone
  • Red tiled roof

Exterior

WEST TOWER

  • C15 battlemented with a plinth
    • Diagonal buttresses
  • 3-sided north-east stair turret
  • Medieval 4-centred west doorway
  • 3-light C19 Perpendicular west window
  • 2-light C19 traceried openings on all 4 faces

NAVE

  • Buttresses and 2- and 3-light Perpendicular windows
  • Except a C19 Decorated pulpit window
    • To the east of the rectangular stair turret

SOUTH CHANCEL CHAPEL

  • Defined by a string course,
    • Buttresses
  • C19 Decorated windows

CHANCEL

  • Buttressed with a string course
  • 3-light flamboyant east window
    • Hoodmould carried down on corbels below the sill

SOUTH PORCH

  • Gabled
  • 2-centred outer doorway
  • C19 roof
  • C19 outer order added to the late medieval moulded inner doorway
  • Probably C17 panelled door

Interior

NAVE

  • Rendered walls
    • Edge of the render decorated to draw attention to the medieval openings
  • Tall medieval chamfered tower arch
    • With pyramid stops
    • Abutment to the north and south faces
  • Richly moulded chancel arch by Woodye
    • With moulded responds and carved capitals
  • 1879 brattished stone pulpit with bold tracery panels
  • 1879 plain square-headed bench ends
  • Painted Royal Arms dated 1742 in frame on nave wall

ROOFS

  • Fine late medieval open wagon roof to the nave
    • Presumably extended by Woodyer
    • With moulded ribs
  • An unusual variety of carved bosses
  • Wall plates carved with rustic green men
  • Unceiled wagon roof to aisle with moulded ribs
  • Boarded wagon roof to chancel
    • With moulded ribs and small bosses

ARCADE

  • 4-bay arcade
  • Easternmost bay a Woodyer copy of the late medieval slender piers
  • Corner shafts carrying moulded Tudor arches on foliage-carved capitals
  • Depressed medieval segmental arch
    • Presumably resited between chancel and south chancel chapel
  • With C19 parclose
  • Hagioscope pierces the same wall

FITTINGS

  • Very complete Woodyer fittings to chancel:
  • Stone and local marble reredos
  • Symbols of the evangelists painted in gold
  • 1879 tiling
  • Poppyhead choir stalls
  • Communion rail with iron standards
  • Low timber chancel screen with traceried panels
  • C19 brass fittings in chancel possibly also by Hardman

FONT

  • Unusual possibly C12 font;
  • Round bowl on a cylindrical stem
  • Decorated with 2 carved profile heads
  • Mouldings on the base
  • C19 font cover in the Romanesque style

STAINED GLASS

  • Important set of ten Hardman windows with memorial dates between 1862 and 1910:
  • A series which adds to the coherence of the interior
  • South doorway is a late C15-early C16 granite 4-centred arch
    • Moulded surround and rams head stops
  • Plank door is C19

Other information

It is very unusual to find a church with a complete set of windows by the same maker, and this church is well worth seeing for this reason alone let alone the other delights, especially the roof bosses

This page contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0

Stoodleigh Church of St Margaret Description Stoodleigh Church of St Margaret Gallery

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