West Down Church of St Calixtus Basics
Listed building grade 1
Regularly open
Address
Church of St Calixtus
West Down
Ilfracombe
EX34 8NH
Geographical coordinates
51°09’29.5″N 4°07’22.1″W (enter these in your smartphone navigator)
Devonchurchland says…
A simple and powerful church, and unusually for Devon most of it dating from the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries. The North transept alone is worth a bit of time.
The tower and chancel have been rebuilt but they are none the worse for that. The tower also has one of oldest clocks in Devon.
Inside there is a lovely old, rugged Norman font, seen better days and proud of it. On the wall there is fascinating memorial to the Isaac family with strong Catholic coded messages.
The altar back is deliciously sweet, a Victorian painting of the Annunciation, colourful and delicate, really worth seeking out.
There is some good Victorian stained glass as well.
Really though it is the space that wins out here, very calm and simple, and pretty well unaltered for nigh one 600 years.
Outline
PLAN
- West tower
- Chancel
- Nave
- North transept
- South transept
AGE
- C13 nave and south transept
- C14 north transept
- Chancel entirely rebuilt 1675
- West tower entirely rebuilt 1712
- Restored 1874 by William White
BUILT FROM
- Rubble
- Larger roughly dressed stonework to tower
- Slate roofs
- Crested ridge tiles
- Coped gable ends
Exterior
WEST TOWER
- 3 stages
- Setback buttresses
- Embattled parapet with corner pinnacles
- Pointed arched bell openings
- 2 trefoil-headed lights on each side
- West window of 2-light trefoil-headed lights
- Pointed arch doorway
- Double roll-moulded surround
- C19 door
- Single light window in second stage
- Plaque on south side records ‘The Tower was taken down to foundations in 1711 and rebuilt 1712
NAVE (SOUTH SIDE)
- C13 2-light lancets with hoodmould
- C19 pointed arch to south porch doorway
- Corbels to inner arch
- C19 roof
- C13 plain chamfered pointed arched inner doorway
- C19 plank door
- To right above porch is 2-light window
- Hoodmould
NAVE (NORTH SIDE)
- 2 square-headed windows
- With 2 trefoil-headed lights and hoodmould
- Each side of buttress
- Blocked C13 pointed arched north doorway to left
SOUTH TRANSEPT
- 3 stepped lancets to south side
- Hollow-moulded pointed arched doorway to west side
- Single lancet to east side
SOUTH TRANSEPT
- South side
- 2-light chancel window to left with hoodmould
- Round-arched single-light window to right
- Flanking blocked pointed arched doorway
- Plaque above, recording chancel was “Rebuilded in 1675”
- 3-light east window
- Single trefoil-headed light to east wall of vestry
- 2 trefoil-headed lights on north side
NORTH TRANSEPT
- North wall early C14 3-light window
- Ogee reticulation and pointed hoodmould
- With label stops
- 2 trefoil-headed light window with hoodmould on east side
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
A rare church for Devon, the nave and transepts remaining untouched since the 13/14th centuries.
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