Description

HALWILL HALWILL
SX 49 NW
4/73 Church of St Peter and St James
14.2.58
GV II*
Parish church. C14 or earlier west tower and north nave wall, the rest entirely
rebuilt 1870-9, Samuel Hooper of Hatherleigh being the architect in 1878. North wall
of the nave stone rubble, tower stone rubble brought to course, the rest squared on
stone rubble, freestone dressings, slate roofs with crested ridge tiles. West tower,
nave, chancel, north and south transepts, north east vestry, south porch. The C19
rebuilding is in the Decorated style, the gables with chamfered stopped bargeboards
with kneelers and the ends of the purlins exposed. The east wall has angle
butttresses with coped set-offs. A chamfered string rises under the sill of the 3-
light Geometric east window with hoodmould and carved foliage label stops. The south
wall of the chancel has 2 trefoil-headed 1-light windows with chamfered architraves.
The north and south transepts have 3-light windows with intersecting tracery with
hoodmoulds and carved foliage label stops, the south transept has a 1-light east
window similar to those in the chancel. The north side of the nave has a central 3-
light intersecting traceried window with a hoodmould with reused medieval carved head
label stops flanked by two 2-light C19 Decorated uncusped windows with Y tracery.
There is an angle buttress with coped set-offs at the west end of the north and south
sides. The south porch has a steeply-pitched gabled roof and a chamfered stopped
doorway below a shield carved with "1870". The porch is flanked by 2-light Geometric
Decorated windows with hoodmoulds and carved foliage label stops. The north east
vestry has an asymmetrical east gable, a chamfered stopped east doorway and a 2-light
square-headed stone mullioned north window. The unbuttressed battlemented 2-stage
west tower has a projecting rectangular north east stair turret with slit windows,
the east wall of the turret is flush with east wall of the tower. The turret has a
sloping slate roof. The tower pinnacles have an unusual convex inner profile and
terminate in crocketted finials. The chamfered west door is probably C19 below a 2-
light square-headed cusped C19 window with a hoodmould and label stops. 2-light
chamfered belfry openings to all 4 faces of the tower, the south face has a small
cupsed 1-light window at bellringers' stage.
Interior The porch has a narrow chamfered 2-centred doorway, slate-topped benches
and the remains of a reused medieval carved wallplate. The interior of the church
has plastered walls. C19 arched brace roofs throughout, the nave roof has a moulded
wallplate and the braces spring from moulded timber corbels. The double-chamfered
crossing arch has an inner order carried on moulded corbels; the chancel arch is
double-chamfered, the inner hollow-chamfered order springs from moulded capitals on
short shafts supported on foliage corbels. The braces of the transept roofs spring
from moulded corbels above timber shafts carried on moulded stone corbels. The 2-bay
chancel roof has a brattished vine-carved wallplate. The unmoulded tower arch
springs from chamfered imposts. Timber crested reredos of 5 blind arches with
paintings of Christ flanked by saints and angels. Trefoil-headed piscina on south
wall with a hoodmould, carved foliage corbels and diaper tiling. An aumbry on the
north wall has a hoodmould, label stops and fleur de lis cusping with a billet
moulding on the shelf. Moulded timber altar rail with metal barley sugar standards
and ornamental pierced spandrels. Set of contemporary tiling to chancel and
spandrels. Set of contemporary tiling to chancel crossing. Choir stalls in the
south transept have fleur de lis poppyheads, others are rectangular with blind
traceried carving. Organ case in the north transept is probably contemporary with
the restoration. Simple stepped nave bench ends with moulded rails. 5-sided 1910
Jacobean style drum pulpit on a stem with a moulded base decorated with lively
grotesques. The drum consists of standards decorated with strapwork between panels
of symbolic carving and foliage under round-headed arches. Plain octagonal granite
font, possibly C14 (Creswell) with a late C19 domed font cover with crocketted
brackets pierced with trefoils and a pinnacle. Late C19 timber lectern. Chamfered
arched blocked doorway to the tower stair turret on the west wall.
Beatrix Cresswell, Notes on Devon Churches (1922). Typescript in West Country
Studies Library.
Devon C19 Churches Project.

Listing NGR: SX4272499431

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17536339

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.

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