Description

KINGSTEIGNTON CHURCH STREET, Kingsteignton
SX 87 SE
5/115 Church of St Michael
23.8.55

GV II*

Parish church. C15, thoroughly restored in 1865 (Pevsner). Local grey limestone
rubble tower and 3 westernmost bays of the south aisle; porch snecked local grey
limestone, the rest red sandstone ashlar, probably C19. Freestone and granite
dressings, slate roofs.
The surviving medieval fabric (west tower and arcades), is C15 Perpendicular. The
church appears to have been thoroughly rebuilt in 1865, including the external
walling, and re-roofed. Plan of nave, chancel, north and south 5-bay aisles, west
tower, south west porch, north east vestry. Chancel with set back buttresses with
set-offs, some white stone dressings.
5-light C19 Perpendicular style east window with a hoodmould; chamfered priest's
doorway with a rounded arch. Separately-roofed gabled north-east vestry with a C19
3-light Perpendicular style east window with a hoodmould. Some evidence of
rebuilding on the east wall round the window, blocked opening on north side. Red
sandstone north aisle with 3 buttresses and a rectangular rood loft stair turret with
a lean-to stone roof. Four 4-light C19 Perpendicular windows with hoodmoulds;
chamfered doorway with a rounded arch in the first bay from the west, 3-light C19
Perpendicular west window with hoodmould; brick chimney shaft on north west corner of
the aisle. The 2 easternmost bays of the south aisle are red sandstone ashlar with
some white stones, the 3 westernmost bays and the plinth throughout are local grey
limestone rubble; set back buttresses. The 3-light east window and two 4-light
eastern windows on the south side are C19 Perpendicular with heavily cusped tracery,
the other aisle windows are more conventional C19 Perpendicular. The remnants of a
door jamb are visible between the first and second bays from the east, west of this
there is a string course. Snecked local grey limestone porch with a coped gable and
rounded moulded outer doorway with a hoodmould. The inner face of the doorway has
C19 cable moulding of uncertain date, C19 roof. Good circa C16 2 plank studded inner
door in a doorway with a cranked head, the jambs and arch richly carved with vine
foliage and the carving of the right hand jamb includes a hand.
3-stage battlemented west tower with corner pinnacles and set back buttresses, the
grey limestone rubble is varied with some blocks of red sandstone. Internal north
west stair turret with slit windows. The west face has an arched granite west
doorway with an unusual moulding profile and an unusual uncusped 4-light granite west
window with uncusped head tracery. The window, in a freestone architrave, may be an
C18 replacement. Chamfered bellringers' opening on east face; 2-light chamfered
belfry openings on all sides, clock on north face.
Interior 5-bay C15 Beerstone arcades with rounded arches and piers with corner
shafts. No chancel arch; ceiled waggon roofs to the aisles without bosses appear to
be C19, similar chancel roof with bosses. Nave roof C19 unceiled waggon with bosses
and a brattished wall plate. Plain rounded tower arch springing from plain imposts
with secondary piers abutting the arch at the east. The chancel has a C19 crested
stone reredos with a central cross carved in relief and local marble shafts on either
side. the reredos is extended to north and south as panels carved with the symbols
of the evangelists above a dado of local marble. C19 aumbry chancel furnishings
C20. C19 pulpit, comtemporary with the reredos, open-fronted with 4 local marble
octagonal shafts with good carved capitals. C15 octagonal font, the bowl carved with
quatrefoils, the stem with flamboyant blind tracery. Sections of the wainscot of the
C15 road screen survive with paintings of saints.
The chancel has some good ledger stones used as floor slabs including one
commemorating the Reverend Richard Adlam, died 1670 with a remarkable verse addressed
to death: "Damn'd tyrant! Cant prophaner blood suffice?/ Must priests that offer be
the sacrifice?/ Go tell the Genii that in Hades lie/ They triumph o'er this secret
Calvary/ Till some just Nemesis avenge our Cause/and teach this hell-priest to revere
good lawes"/. Wall monument on south wall commemorating Richard Carpenter, died
1697; a black marble inscription tablet with white marble pilasters, a broken
pediment and urn above and armorial bearings below. Wall monument to Christopher
Beeke, died 1798 on the north wall with a marble obelisk with an urn in relief and
inscription panel below. The south wall of the south aisle has 2 white marble wall
monuments signed "Nixon and Son" commemorating Samuel Whiteway, died 1837, and
Samuel Whiteway, died 1847; 2 C17 wall monuments commemorating James Clifford of
Ware, died 1685 and Thomas Hele of Babcombe. The north wall has 3 gabled Gothic
Revival monuments: one commemorating the Reverend Nicholas Watts, died 1849, signed
A. Mather, Gt. Marlborough St., London; the remaining 2 are a pair on either side of
the north door, commemorating Lucinda Widborne, died 1855 and Charlotte Watts, died
1874.
East window and east window of south aisle by the Hardman Company, easternmost window
of south side by Drake of Exeter.
Part of the early C16 rood screen was removed to the Chantry (formerly the vicarage)
in the circa 1820s and is still there.

Listing NGR: SX8717472856

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17534705

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Setting up a Listed Building Heritage Partnership Agreement: Historic England Advice Note 5