Throwleigh Church of St. Mary The Virgin Basics
Listed building grade 1
Regularly open
Address
Church of St. Mary The Virgin
Throwleigh
Okehampton
Devon
EX20 2HT
Geographical coordinates
50°21’45.7″N 3°54’54.6″W (enter these in your smartphone navigator)
Devonchurchland says…
Throwleigh village is one of the prettiest in this part of Dartmoor, and Throwleigh church meets this high bar with ease. It is a beautiful moorland granite church with an elegant tower. The steep churchyard allows views from various delightful perspectives, and it is well worth spending time appreciating this mainly fifteenth century church from the outside.
It also has one of the best priest’s doors in Devon, carved from blocks of granite. A real stunner.
Inside there are some good roof bosses, the best being a Three Hares and a Green Man. The latter is particularly good, very expressive, probably of a corpse face in a shroud of foliage.
Alongside these is a delicious pulpit made from old benchends, a jigsaw of great carving.-, along with an entrancing remnant of the old rood screen.
There are also some very pretty illustrations of the Stations of the Cross by Nina Somerset, a little known artist active in the 1950s. Very nice they are too.
Good stained glass too, the best probably of St Cecilia and her angel by Ninian Comper, a very important 20th century church designer. He also has an Annunciation in the East Window, almost equally good, though many a folk will prefer it and they could be right.
The Easter Sepulchre Niche is a beaut, and unusually carved from granite. It is a bit damaged but touching it and wondering just how long it took to carve and how deep a faith of those who worshipped here… magic.
A classic Dartmoor church, made from the granite bones of the moor.
Outline
PLAN
- Lower and narrower chancel
- South doorway with C15 south porch
- Contemporary rood stair turret at the break between nave and chancel on the south side
- C15 west tower with internal stair turret
- C16 north aisle overlaps chancel but is not full length
AGE
- Small part may be late C13 – early C14
- Mostly rebuilt in the C15
- Possibly by Thomas Courtenay who was patron of the benefice in 1453
- North aisle added in the C16;
- Renovated circa 1945 by Herbert Read
BUILT FROM
- The oldest section, west end of south wall of nave, is granite stone rubble
- Rest is large coursed blocks of granite ashlar
- Granite ashlar detail, most of it original
- Slate roof
Exterior
WEST TOWER
- 3 stages with embattled parapet
- Set back buttresses
- Corner pinnacles
- 2-light belfry windows
- West side has a 4-centred arch doorway
- 3-light window above containing Perpendicular tracery
NAVE
- At the west end (left of the porch) a small twin lancet window
- Pointed heads
- Sunken spandrels and shallow hoodmould
- Right of the porch a tall late C16-early C17 3-light mullioned window
- Semi-octagonal rood turret displays a carved foliate cornice
- Remains of an embattled parapet
CHANCEL
- Set back buttresses
- Gable apex cross
- Original C15 windows have Perpendicular tracery and hoodmoulds
- East window with carved labels
- One of south windows replaced by another late C16-early C17 mullioned window
- South side has unusually ornate priests doorway
- Doorway itself is a 2-centred arch
- Small and narrow with a moulded surround
- In front of this, the frame breaks forward from the wall
- The surround here is carved with stylised ferns
- Deeply cut carved foliate spandrels
NORTH AISLE
- C16
- Set back buttresses
- 4 windows of the north side separated by buttresses
- These and another in east end are 3 lights
- Segmental heads and hoodmoulds
- Outer lights only have pointed heads
PORCH
- Gabled
- Set back buttresses
- 2-centred outer arch
- Moulded surround and carved spandrels
- Right one containing the initials TC crudely carved
- Above it a good brass sundial dated 1663
- Put there in 1913
Interior
NAVE
- South door a 2-centred arch retooled in C19
- Contains ancient studded plank door
- Coverstrips and oak lock
- Tall plain 2-centred tower arch
- Mostly plastered walls
- 4-bay granite arcade
- 1 overlapping the chancel
- Moulded piers (Pevsners Type A)
- Plain caps and low moulded arches
- Rood stair has flat-topped doorway with moulded surround
- Oak drum pulpit
- Made up from carved pieces of C16 craftmanship.
- Font
- Granite
- C15
- Plain octagonal bowl with moulded stem and plinth
- C19 or C20 oak cover
- Tower screen and other furniture is C20
- Except for a C17 oak chest.
ROOFS
- The porch and nave have restored but essentially original C15 ceiled wagon roofs
- Moulded purlins and ribs
- Carved oak bosses
- North aisle has a similar wagon roof but is C16
- Most bosses are replacements
- Chancel has a more ornate version with carved ribs and purlins
- Crestwork between nave and chancel is C19
FLOORS
- Mostly C20 slate and parquet
- Chancel floor includes a good group of C17 and early C18 graveslabs
- More have been reset in the tower
- Also there are a couple of probably C17
CHANCEL
- Result of C20 modernisation
- Low oak chancel screen is C20
- Based on wainscotted section of the original which was dated 1544
- Incorporates small sections of the original
- C20 rood beam with carved figures
- Stalls, lectern and benches are C20
- Timber
- One bench may be C16
- Other bench ends have earlier pieces worked in
- East window has moulded inner arch on vaulting shafts
EASTER SEPULCHRE (IN CHANCEL)
- Unique.
- At the base is a niche under a depressed arch carved
- Coarse scroll enrichment between panelled buttresses
- Above it is thought there was a carved board
STAINED GLASS
- East window stained glass by Comper
- East window of nave is by Bell of Bristol
Other information
This is a good moorland church with some unusually good C15 and C16 detail.
This page contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0
