Colaton Raleigh Church of St John the Baptist Description
- A very pretty mainly 19th century church by a talented local architect
- The tower is 15th century
- Inside is stunning
- The north aisle 12th century arcade has been preserved
- The walls are covered in wondrous sgraffito work
- Dramatically early for its time
- A powerful Norman font
- Some good roof bosses in the chancel
- This really is a valuable and enchanting church
Colaton Raleigh Church of St John the Baptist
Colaton Raleigh church is marvellous. Nowadays it sits quietly on a little lane leading down to the River Otter but back in in the nineteenth century was a revolutionary building in the most delicious way. Most delicious indeed.
But first, the structure…
Parts are at least eleventh-century, inside there are still some twelfth and thirteenth bonnies, and the tower is probably later fifteenth century…
Most of the exterior was rebuilt by a fine West Country church architect, Medley Fulford, as his first full commission in 1875, when church architects were the near rock stars of the age, creating wonders at the stroke of their pens.
Such a well-balanced composition into the bargain, Early Decorated style since you did not ask, set off by the coloured roof and little touches like the ridge tiles, which alternate between plain and crested.
As an aside, when we say that Victorian architects built in a certain style it means that they were inspired as such, not that they slavishly copied.
The well designed porch
Here is a beautiful example, a porch that is not really porch, more of an extended bay, the door well-framed by that arch on those two cute shafts, surrounding stonework in shades of gold with lichen-clad rendering.
All over the exterior…
External features are handled and combined with originality and with a freedom from historical precedent… Much play is made of materials, textures and colours – characteristics than link Fulford with the architects of the Art and Craft movement and the buildings of the English Vernacular Revival
For a first major commission it is a wowser.
Inside Colaton Raleigh Church
Inside Colaton Raleigh church is no less impressive, playing with the ancient and the new.
The arcade, that row of pillars, on the left, the north aisle, is late twelfth or early thirteenth century, massive stone, thick low arches, over-engineered and loving it.
On the right, the south aisle, the pillars and arches much lighter, more delicate, more graceful, yet still riffing of the the older design except for that nearest pillar giving a cheeky wink to the fifteenth century.
The twelfth century arcade
That is not say the earlier arcade is not graceful, just look at it flowing down the nave, it is just graceful in a chunkier way, more Mississippi River than the leaping stream of the south aisle.
It is also a rare example of this style in Devon.
Beautiful stone
The stone, the very nice stone indeed, is from Salcombe Regis only six miles away; quarried, carted and carved over eight hundred years ago to make this magic and still loved deeply, a wonder in itself.
With nineteenth century sgraffito
This was not utilitarian stonework, this was designed for beauty and by golly did they hit the spot.
Oh, and that decoration emphasising the arch, that does not appear on the south aisle; it highlights not only this loveliness but also the oldest part of the church.
Plus that same decoration is a marvel in itself, the church is covered in it, it is called sgraffito and is so worth a deep dive, which unsurprisingly we shall.
The different ages perfect together
Meanwhile, looking down the nave, there is the fine interplay of restoration and originality that works so well in this church. The fifteenth century tower arch with much more recent screen, the arcades, stonework from two different eras, the Norman font and the Victorian seating. Delish, all of it.
The Victorian seating
Talking about the Victorian seating, these bench ends are doubleplusgood times infinity. A simple design, with well proportioned curves, the way the edging comes to a chunkily graceful point is the icing on a very rich cake indeed.
Vernacular utilitarian carving at its best.
Colaton Raleigh chancel
The sanctuary here is marvellous, with all that wall decoration, the sgraffito mentioned earlier really coming out to dance, hard-core disco I venture.
Stained glass details
With a goodly east window using colour most excellently. The wings, that robe, sure entrancements.
Above the window are the words ‘Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts’ and this is a window for contemplation and thought, the words and images together.
Chancel roof bosses
On the chancel roof are some tremendous roof bosses, the colouring more recent, the age indeterminate because of that colouring. My bet is Late Medieval, the edges seem quite crumbly and the carving is soft cut; Victorian bosses are much sharper due to their harder steel tools.
Still, could be wrong.
What is undeniable is the utter brilliance of this proto-hippy-warlock-1960s-psychedelic-folk-rock-boho-dude, even if the paintwork has likely changed the initial purpose of the carving, somewhat or heaps of a muchness.
The piper at the gates of the Eucharist
And here is an even more interesting boss, a bagpiper using a type found throughout Europe back in the Medieval, and also on bench end carvings of the same age in Devon and Cornwall; Similar pipes are still used around various European regions including Northumbria.
Which is yet another reason to suspect these bosses are medieval, but what they do not do, I venture, is belong in the chancel. There polyphony ruled, sacred music for a sacred space; they have quite possibly been rescued from the nave or aisle of the old church and placed here, along with some equally fine foliage bosses.
Sgraffito and the altar
The original altar plays match up with the wall ornamentation, carved and painted in the new Arts and Crafts style, and backed by that lovely reredos (altar back).
The very pretty sgraffito altar back
As here…
The coloration, the gentle floral images, the intricate arches and pillars, remind me of some work I have seen in Sicilian buildings with Norman and Moorish influence… There is such a graceful and seemingly effortless flow of design of design and balance of colours that the work seems inevitable.
Insta commenter
This is sgraffito work, this is superb.
What is sgraffito?
Sgraffito is the technique of using different layers of coloured plaster, then scraping off each layer as appropriate to make a beautiful image.
Sgraffito done well is very, very nice indeed. Here it is done bodaciously well.
It was an ancient technique going back at least as far as the Romans, but had only been revived in England in 1871-3 when the Government School of Mines in South Kensington, London, was decorated with a Renaissance style scheme.
Fulford’s use of the technique in 1873-5 in this church was mighty early and quite different from the South Kensington style.
Unsurprisingly perhaps, for Fulford was a committed Goth, schooled in the tradition of Pugin and Ruskin, to both of whom the Renaissance was abhorrent.
Devon Buildings Group Newsletter, 10/1988: The Sgraffito Decoration of Colaton Raleigh Church and its Conservation, Chris Brooks & Bruce Induni
Goths will Goth, and this church is all the better for that.
The Four Evangelist symbols
Winkleigh church in Devon also used the technique, a year or so earlier, but not to this extent and not with this awesome genius.
For genius it is, and the yet greater wonder is that it sprang out of near nothing, a new technique and a brilliantly novel vision. It is a national treasure and extraordinarily good.
The colouring here in these Four Evangelist symbols, the level of detail with those fine lines, and the capture of character in such a medium just takes the breath away.
A Pelican in her Piety in sgraffito
Unsurprisingly for a Victorian Goth there is an abundance of religious imagery, especially in the chancel; here a Pelican in her Piety feeds her chicks with her own blood, a symbol of Christ and the Eucharist.
Furthermore there is more consummate artistry at work, a good example is the use of texture on the plasterwork, here delineating the pelican’s feathers. This is, to say it again, outstanding work, especially considering its novelty.
And even more especially as it was only the craftsman’s second outing, the man in question being Mr Vickery of Barnstaple.
Mr George Vicary (sic), one of the cleverest craftsmen Barnstaple ever bred… George was a plodder – and man of mark.
North Devon Journal, 09/06/1904: Letter from Harry Hems
Harry Hems being one of the most famous carvers and restorers in Devon in the 1800s, and to be called a ‘man of mark’, meaning a most eminent man, by such a talented cove was high praise indeed, and to be called a ‘plodder’ at that time meant patient, thorough and persistent, yet more praise for sure.
Considering the sgraffito here in Colaton Raleigh, whilst designed by Medley Fulford, was actually crafted by George Vickery by himself after only one other sgraffito job, old Harry seems spot on with his praise.
Essential design in plaster
Because even down the nave, where the colours are somewhat muted, as indeed they should be for the chancel is the sacred where the colours live, the quality pops, and keeps on popping.
Here on the north aisle the simple lines and the splashes of pastel show that consummate talent… Those wonderful curves, the vines, grapes and leaves reduced to bare essentials but instantly recognisable, just enough decoration, not too much, not too little.
George went on to become the estate architect of Eggesford in Mid Devon; it is a delight that he found security in an era when life could go pear shaped real quick for those without social connections or wealth, but still… There is a part of me that wonders what he could have achieved if he had been able to let his talents rip.
Hey ho, he does at least have a church nerd wittering over his genius on the world wide web over a century and half later, for what that is worth.
A bit like having his own chantry chapel!
The Norman font
Bet the thirteenth century font is dead chuffed to be seen in such company too; it seems to come as a matching pair with that powerful north arcade, both formidable as all get out with an inner calmness.
Here the bowl, pedestal and cable carving seem original, below that is Victorian rigmarole.
Christ the gardener
Whilst for a bit more colour this delightful 1955 window works well. It shows Mary Magdalene meeting the risen Christ outside his empty tomb. At first she takes him for a gardener, Resurrection not really on her radar.
Then the instance of recognition shown here…
Jesus says to her, “Mary”. Turning she says to him in Hebrew “Rabbouni” (which means “Teacher”).
John 20:16
An instant captured well, a humble Christ extending his arms, Mary with her hand to her cheek, frozen posture, caught in a mixture of surprise, wonderment and dawning understanding with a goodly dollop of confusion as well.
It is a low key picturing of the event, I have seen many that are more magnificent or emotionally hefty, and this works all the better through its understated reality. Mary did not expect such a momentous occasion, she was grief-ridden amongst the tombs in the early morning, yet here she is, the first to meet the risen Christ, the first to witness the new world, a reborn heaven and earth… and she is teetering on the brink of this truth.
And all she can feel is what she feels in this now, the future is suddenly transfigured, the past is suddenly turned upside down, the present is reshaping her soul.
An interior of ages
It is a beauty is this church, the Medieval and the Victorian seamlessly intertwining, the newer work rhyming well but not slavishly copying.
Beauty for the soul
And of course the sgraffito, nationally important work but even more importantly George Vickery’s genius, his heartful gift of beauty to our universe.
Here that ancient tradition of using skills and talent to show what the world can be, for our souls to rest in, a glimpse of the possiblity of beauty, the beauty of the Divine.
Now not so many follow the Path of Christ but still that beauty works for so many of us, regardless of faith or not, reaching that part of ourselves away from commercialism, the world, the daily natter.
A part more valuable than all the treasures of this world, that part that flowered into Mary’s awareness amongst the tombs on Easter morn.
