West Hill Church of St Michael Basics
Listed building grade 2
Regularly open
Address
Church of St Michael
Bendarroch Road
West Hill
Ottery St Mary
EX11 1UW
Geographical coordinates
50°44’24.5″N 3°19’08.4″W (enter these in your smartphone navigator)
Devonchurchland says…
There is a sweetness about West Hill church that is most delicious, tucked away as it is off the street surrounded by greenery.
It is small, built in 1846 to serve the local population, and is a lovely vision of its time.
The outside is simple Early English style with a nice little bellcote and modest porch.
Inside it is very well-proportioned, thoughtfully designed to make the space seem larger than it actually is.
The altar back is a charm, with some very cute Four Evangelist carved symbols and some nice paintings.
The stained glass here is a quality collection, from William Wailes’ colourful East Window to an extensive selection of saints in 20th entry glass, probably made in Exeter.
A very nice little church indeed.
Outline
PLAN
- Nave
- Chancel
- South porch
- NE vestry
- Large extension to the West
- Bellcote
AGE
- 1845-6 by a Mr Wollaston
- 1978 W extension by Anthony Hollow
BUILT FROM
- Local stone
- Slate roofs
- Two skylights of transparent material
- On each side
- Artificial stone for the extension
Exterior
WEST BELLCOTE
- West end of nave
- Octagonal
- Lancet openings on the intermediate faces
- Crowned by a stone spirelet
NAVE AND AISLE
- Five bays
- Under a continuous roof
- No external distinction is made between these two main parts of the building
- Bays are demarcated by buttresses
- Offsets
- Gabled tops
VARIOUS
- Built in the Early English style
- Lancet windows
- At the W end there is a large single-storey extension
- Meeting rooms etc
- Although Cherry and Pevsner date it to 1978 North part appears to be later addition
- East window three graded lancets
- North side vestry under its own gable
Interior
VARIOUS
- The walls are plastered and whitened
- Plain arch between nave and chancel
- No capitals
- Roofs to both nave and chancel are arch-braced
- East end there are arcades of single, trefoiled blind arches to the sides
- In the centre a series of quatrefoils mark the former position of the altar
- Floored with red, buff, cream and black coloured tiles
FITTINGS
- SE corner of the nave there is a stone pulpit
- Standing on a shaft
- Polygonal and has a blind arch
- Foliage capital shafts on each face
- Font is octagonal
- Has shields round the bowl bearing foliage
- Agnus Dei and other motifs
- Base has attached shafts
- Nave seating has square bench-ends
- Two-tiers of tracery
- Well-proportioned design
- Pairs of cusped blind arches on each level
STAINED GLASS
- East window of 1846 is by William Wailes of Newcastle upon Tyne
Other information
Built in 1845-6 to serve the local community, the parish church at Ottery St Mary being over two miles distant. It is a fairly modest building but illustrates the move in the 1840s to the adoption of archaeologically accurate Gothic architecture under the influence of Pugin and the Cambridge Camden Society and its influential, local counterpart, the Exeter Diocesan Architectural Society.
Nothing appears to be known of the designer, a Mr Wollaston.
The West extension has changed the external character of the building: it is described by Cherry and Pevsner as `unsympathetic’ but it has provided the church with good ancillary facilities
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
The church of St Michael, West Hill, Ottery St Mary, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
It is of special interest as an archaeologically correct Gothic Revival church of the mid-1840s, taking up the new ideas about church-building that were prevalent after about 1840.
It has retained most of its early Victorian seating and other original features.
It has stained glass by William Wailes, one of the leading manufacturers of the early Victorian stained glass revival.
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