Stoodleigh Church of St Margaret Basics
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)
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
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