East Devon church guide

Clayhidon is an enchanting parish with a little jewel of a church sitting up in the north with a simple, sweet interior.

It is a modest dainty, a perfect little Devon red stone church, a primroses in the spring kind of pleasant…

Those attractive red stone arches gracefully flowing up the nave, dipping elegantly to meet the octagonal pillars…

A charm of a church tower nestled into the western valley side so we can climb almost level with the top for a view worth the visit alone.

There are sixty-three sets of oak bench ends, all carved around 1537 and the most complete set in Devon if not the country

That tower is Norman, and that tiny chancel is also suspiciously small, early chancels were much smaller than later ones generally

Kentisbeare Church of St Mary has one of the best rood screens in the county along with other beauties that make it a total star

The church is a sweetie, built mainly from local stone and flint rubble. It is also unaltered fourteenth century and full of treasures.

So we enter by the north porch and are plunged up to our waists in a sea of wondrous box pews, full of the browns of the universe.

The way he emphasises the arches with double or triple lines, the careful use of stained and clear glass to allow the light to splash around

Inside this church is an astonishing range of little treasures, from medieval stained glass to beautiful Devon carvings. Stunning stuff.

A flat-bottomed vale watered by a wandering stream, an oasis in the jumbled valleys of the Blackdown Hills, Dalwood is a pretty little find.

Outside, a charming exterior, heavily restored 1846, creating a little gothic dream in its prettily flowered churchyard in the middle of town; cared for with love.