Upton Hellions Church of St Mary Basics
Listed building grade 1
Regularly open
Address
Church of St Mary
Upton Hellions
Crediton
EX17 4AE
Geographical coordinates
50°49’03.5″N 3°38’41.8″W (enter these in your smartphone navigator)
Devonchurchland says…
Positioned down a dead end lane in little rural hamlet, this church is a petite joy.
Red stone well weathered, the exterior is outstanding. The nave and chancel are most likely late 12th century (!), the rest 14th-16th. The outside doors alone are a delight.
The south door, inside the porch, is even better being Norman as it is, and the interior is modest and wondrous with some enchanting 16th century bench ends and very nice pillars and arches.
The Late Medieval roof bosses are outstanding, those in the nave unique in Devon with their simple and powerful faces while the ones in the aisle are lovely flowers.
The chancel is a fine Victorian addition, good stained glass in the east window, tiles showing the signs of the zodiac and a fine old wall memorial into the bargain.
Topping all this off with a plaster Stuart coat of arms and a Norman font, this church is time well spent indeed.
Outline
PLAN
- Nave
- Smaller and lower chancel
- West tower
- Relatively large south aisle east of south porch
- South porch
AGE
- Late C12 nave and chancel
- Late C14-early C15 south porch
- Late C15 tower
- Early-mid C16 south aisle
BUILT FROM
- Nave and chancel random small-stone rubble
- Volcanic quoins
- Tower, porch and aisle of coursed, roughly-squared volcanic and mudstone
- Large volcanic quoins
- Beer stone and volcanic ashlar detail
- Slate roofs
Exterior
WEST TOWER
- Unbuttressed
- 2 stages
- Embattled parapet
- Stair turret projecting square from north side
- Rising above parapet
- Also with embattled parapet
- Volcanic 2-light belfry windows
- Rounded heads
- Shutters on each side
- West side volcanic flat-arched door
- Chamfered surround
- Square-headed window
- Cinquefoil heads
- Sunken spandrels and hoodmould
- Parts of sill and sides are volcanic
- Rest is probably restoration work
- Beer stone
- South side of tower has small volcanic rectangular light
- To ringing loft
- Above lower string course
SOUTH AISLE
- South front has two 3-light square-headed Beer stone windows
- Rounded-arch heads and sunken spandrels
- Both partly restored
- A small round-headed volcanic arch to priests door
- To right between the windows
- East wall Beer stone 3-light ogee-headed window
- Together with a raking buttress between aisle and chancel
- May well be C19 work due to structural failure
- Of the east abutment of the arcade
PORCH
- Gable-ended
- Contains a 2-centred volcanic arch
- Chamfered surround and pyramid stops
- Small rectangular niche under the gable
- Eastern (right) wall of the porch is now incorporated in C16 south aisle
- Which projects further south
CHANCEL
- Restored east chancel window
- Beer stone 3-light square-headed
- Gable has C19 Beer stone kneelers
- Coping surmounted by plain cross
- Irregularities in blind north chancel wall
- Indicate some blockings
NORTH NAVE
- Projecting slightly
- Built higher than the chancel,
- Includes 2 square-headed windows
- Left one is of Beer stone
- Has 3 ogee-headed lights
- Right is volcanic and 4-lights
- With flat-arched heads
- Former is possibly unrestored late C15
- Latter is original early C16 work
Interior
VARIOUS
- Plain almost round-headed tower arch
- Similar chancel arch
- With soffit-chamfered imposts
- Probably late C12
- The 3-bay arcade to the south aisle
- 2 of which overlap the chancel
- Unusual moulded volcanic stone columns
- Undecorated capitals
- Stabb records a parclose screen in the easternmost arch
- Since gone
- Flagged floor includes several C17, C18 and C19 grave slabs
- Tower has late C15 ringing floor
- Intersecting chamfered beams
- Carved bosses
- Contains a rare braced king-post bell-frame
- About the same date
- C15 bell
- West wall of the aisle a now-blocked volcanic aperture
- Quatrefoil surround
- Formerly opened into the porch
- Unknown function
- But apparently predates the south aisle
- Is too low to have been a window (?)
- A W Everett suggested that it may have served for confession
- If the priest sat in the porch and the penitent spoke from the graveyard
- Early C18 oak pulpit
- Fielded panel sides
- Other furnishings are late C19
- Including Minton tile reredos of circa 1875
- Includes an unusual set of blue signs of the zodiac
- Small painted moulded plaster C18 royal arms
- Over south door
SOUTH DOOR
- Late Norman arch
- Half-engaged circular shafts
Scalloped capitals - Double segmental arch
- Half-engaged circular shafts
- Evidence of a hoodmould
- Since cut back flush to wall face
- Contains a C16, oak, studded plank door
- With vertical, ovolo-moulded cover-strips
ROOFS
- Nave has a late C15-early C16 ceiled waggon roof
- Moulded ribs
- Unusually primitive bosses
- Several of which repeat a female face
- Presumably St Mary?
- Lower chancel has similar ceiled wagon roof
- But without bosses
- South aisle has early-mid C16 ceiled wagon roof
- Moulded ribs
- Elaborately carved flat bosses
FONT
- Late C12 Beer stone font in nave near south door
- A late cushion bowl
- Tops of semi-circular faces meeting on the corners
- Vertical dressing with narrow borders is probably modern work
- Mounted on possibly C13 support
- Comprising a central pier with 4 half-engaged flanking shafts
- Simple capitals
- On a square volcanic stone plinth
BENCH ENDS
- 7 late C15-early C16 oak pews
- At the back of the nave
- Carved bench ends
- And a bench frontal
- With its carved end surmounted by a crouching lion
MONUMENT
- On north side of chancel
- Large early C17 mural monument in marble
- Traces of ancient colour
- Is believed to be a memorial to Sir Richard Reynells of Lower Creedy
- And his wife
- Stabb gives Richard Reynells a wife Mary
- Through whom he got Upton Hellions estate
- He died 1631, she 1662
- In painted marble the pair are represented facing each other in prayer
- Either side of a pridieu
- Which features a skull and hourglass
- Free-standing Ionic columns either side
- Carrying a moulded entablature
- Resting on a moulded sill on plain consoles
- Between them a plaque from which the surface and inscription have flaked off
- Framed in a strapwork cartouche
- Below a grey marble slab
- With inscribed heraldic achievement
Rests against the wall
- South aisle
- Includes C18 and C19 marble memorials
- Including one of 1794 to Reverend James Carington
- Chancellor of the Diocese of Exeter
- Has a pediment head surmounted by a bas-relief vase
Other information
Some late Norman detail but most late Perpendicular
Good interior
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