Listed Building: CHURCH OF ST MARY THE VIRGIN (1282837)

LYNTON AND LYNMOUTH SS7149 CHURCH HILL, Lynton 858-1/4/12 (North side) 19/07/50 Church of St Mary the Virgin GV II* Anglican parish church. C13 tower, remains of 1741 rebuilding in S aisle, main reconstruction 1891-1905 by Sedding and Wilson. Rubble with ashlar dressings, including some Ham stone; slate roofs. PLAN: 5-bay nave, extended to the W, with wide N and S aisles, chancel with chapel to N and organ chamber to S, plus vestry, S porch, SW tower, N porch; although the late C19 rebuilding is broadly medieval in form, there is much good Art Nouveau detailing, including some combined with neo-Norman features. EXTERIOR: W front has the N aisle gable set back from the lower N porch, and nave brought forward to a wide gable over a large 7-light Perpendicular window with moulded drip, all in snecked rubble. To the right is the 2-stage plain rubble square tower with crenellated parapet and mid string, with C19 W door in C14 moulded arch and drip to worn head stops under a 2-light C19 Perpendicular window. Above the string is a further 2-light window, and a clock face has the parapet string raised over its head. On the S front the tower has a small blocked light above the mid string, and a clock face as to the W. The E of the tower has a small light to the ringing chamber, and the N front a 2-light opening at parapet level. Immediately attached to the tower, in the same plane, is the rendered wall of the S aisle, with a 2-light window in Ham stone, and a projecting gabled porch with a wide, flat 4-centred arch to a chamfer and broad wave mould, stopped at half-height of the jambs to a single broad chamfer; sundial with incised sun motif. A pair of plank doors is faced with gates with scrolled top-rail and mullioned open panel above double panels; these gates are in detail similar to those to the S and W in the churchyard wall (qqv). Above the doorway is an image corbel. To right are four 2-light windows, and a flush square panel inscribed: 'The walls of this church were rebuilt in ye year of 1741: John Knight, Richard Vellacott, Church Wardens'. Far right a projecting gabled vestry in slate-stone, with plank door to shaped head, facing W. S wall of vestry has a small lancet and a 2-light plate tracery plus quatrefoil. The 3-gabled E end has some unusual detail combining neo-Norman with Art Nouveau, principally in Ham stone. The first gable has 1- above 2- above 3-light with billet and chevron enrichment; the central gable has a complex 1- above 1:2:1- above 2:3:2-light neo-Norman arched series of windows with a raised inscription to the arches, and to the lowest cill: 'O Ye Servants of The Lord, Praise Him and magnify Him for ever'. Above is a cross incised in the upper part of the gable, and a terminal stone cross. The right-hand gable has a triple stepped lancet with single or paired shafts with annulets. At this end of the church are 2 Art Nouveau rainwater hoppers. The N side has 8 buttresses to 2 offsets and plinth. Bay one has 2 lancets, and the next a single lancet to block stops, and a door. Bays 3-7 have 4-light windows with cusps to square or circular stops. The lower gabled porch, with diagonal buttress to the right, has a pointed doorway with casement and wave mould, and a drip course to heavy unworked square stops, under a crenellated parapet with a range of blank panels, and terminal cross, with a central Madonna with defaced face, on a bracket. The E side has a stone bench within, and an arched recess. The inner pair of doors has a wave mould arch and a pair of framed plank doors. On the E wall is a foundation stone, laid by the Archdeacon of Barnstaple, 1891. INTERIOR: barrel roofs, with celure over chancel, Ham stone arcades on octagonal piers to moulded caps and double-chamfer flush arches, painted plaster walls, stone floor to processional ways, but wood block under seating areas. The windows to N and S aisles generally have plain glass, but with varied leading having Art Nouveau figures, glazed in pale tints. The second window from the W, N aisle is dedicated to the 4 sons of Sir George Newnes. The chancel has coloured glass 'placed at the conclusion of the Great War'; the centre light is signed: A L Moore Del et Pinxt London. The N (Lady Chapel) lancets have marble inner shafts, and stained glass, including one by Christopher Whall, of 1907. This chapel, with 2 openings to the chancel, has 3 sedilia and a piscina/aumbry with fine carved doors. FITTINGS: are unusually fine, and are said to have been carved mainly by local craftsmen. Seating is in chairs, the octagonal stone font is in part C12, but with recarving, and with Jacobean carved cover. The octagonal oak carved pulpit has a Latin inscription in memory of Newell and Anne Connop, 1899. This has fine carved panels including Mother and Child, the Lamb, children with a crab,a ram and a donkey, under a basket-weave frieze. 2 square candlesticks, approx 0.15m square and 1.5m high, are in Art Nouveau style. In the chancel are fine carved stalls and altar rail, with a stone chancel rail; the altar, on 3 steps, is plain. The Lady Chapel altar has a polished brass front with plant and Tree of Life embellishment based on timber panels. MONUMENTS and panels include Royal Arms of William III, 1833, painted, on square board beneath the W window; a simple slate tablet on a N aisle pier, to the victims of the 1952 floods; in the W bay of the nave to Hughe Wichehalse 'Christide Eve', 1653; unusual and significant surviving example of painted wooden memorial, with carving by Phelps of Porlock, to Thomas Grose, December 1734; a square stone with coat of arms, 2 stags' heads and RP; a headstone (mounted on the wall) to John Brown, 1736; a white marble oval tablet to William Lock (et al) 1773, signed J Beal, Barum (Barnstaple); John Ward Holman, 1936, good marble and alabaster, a 'notable benefactor and 60 years churchwarden'. Although mainly a rebuilding, the church has considerable interest provided firstly by the eclectic and sometimes eccentric detailing, but secondly from the rich assembly of fittings, which are described by one authority as ' … one of the best collections of their date in Devon' (Cherry). (The Buildings of England: Cherry B & Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1989-: 554; Allen NV: Churches and Chapels of Exmoor: Dulverton: 1974-: 62). Listing NGR: SS7206249436 Selected Sources Book Reference - Author: NV Allen - Title: The Churches and Chapels of Exmoor - Date: 1974 - Page References: 62 Article Reference - Author: Nikolaus Pevsner and Bridget Cherry - Title: Devon - Date: 1989 - Journal Title: The Buildings of England - Page References: 554 National Grid Reference: SS 72062 49436