Description

FILLEIGH FILLEIGH
SS 62 NE
5/47 Church of St Paul
-
20.2.67
GV II*

Parish church. 1732, built on a new site but incorporating some fabric from the old
church which stood closer to Castle Hill House (q.v.). Remodelled 1876-7 by Clark
of Newmarket. Roughly coursed stone rubble to west tower and nave, dressed to south
aisle and chanel. Red clay tile roof with fishscale banding and coped gable ends.
West tower, nave, short transepts, south aisle and apsidal chancel. Originally
Classical in style, the Victorian remodelling converted the church into the Norman
style.
West tower of 2 stages, with spire added in late C19. Diagonal buttresses. Lombard
frieze to parapets. Norman style round-arched bell openings to each face with
engaged columns and scalloped capitals. West window of 3-lights, Perpendicular,
incorporating some C15 stonework, as does the round-arched west doorway with
scalloped capitals and jambs pieced-in.
Nave, north transept and chancel windows are all round-arched single lights with
Norman style mouldings applied to the original Georgian openings, the chancel
windows with a continuous cable hoodmould. Gabled south porch with external stair
turret to organ gallery on west side. Large wheel window with sexafoil tracery
above doorway with fishscale patterning to the tympanum. South aisle has C19
Perpendicular style pointed arched windows, two 2-lights and doorway on south side,
and large 4 light window to east end. North transept, with an arched gablet,
terminates in the Fortescue vault with embattled parapet, 2 narrow round-arched
openings with eared architraves at east end flanked by diagonal buttresses and
plaque on north side 'to memory of Hugh 3rd Earl Fortescue and of 4 generations of
his ancestors', flanked by Norman style round-arched windows.
Interior semi-circular headed arches in Norman style to tower and transepts, and to
2 bay aisle arcade with scalloped capitals. Ceiled wagon roofs throughout with
panels painted with foliated decoration, the chancel roof particularly elaborate and
painted by Lady Susan Fortescue c. 1880. Apse of chancel panelled in leaf patterns
of multicoloured stone, continued as mosaics behind the choir stalls, with
inscription to George Damer, 7th son of Earl Fortescue, lost in HMS Wasp in the
China seas 1887. C19 pulpit with 3 facets, with twin arches in larger arch
supported on cable twist colonettes to each blind panel. Marble font dedicated to
Georgina, Countess Fortescue as are the series of six chancel stained glass windows.
Nave, north side has 2 windows dedicated to Alice Sophie Fortescue d. 1881 and
Eleanor Hester Fortescue d. 1864. North transept has windows to Henry Fortescue d.
1875 and wife d. 1869 and to Francis Fortescue d. 1897 and Katherine his wife d.
1884. The large 4 light east window of the aisle (formerly the east window of the
chancel) was moved here during the 1876-7 restoration and is filled with stained
glass in memory of the first Earl Fortescue. Stained glass to 2 windows on south
side to memory of Hon. George Matthew Fortescue d. 1877 and Rev. Canon John
Fortescue d. 1869 and Hon. John William Fortescue d. 1859.
Monuments: Nave, north side. Two small brass plates in square panels with kneeling
figures to Richard Fortescue d. 1570. South aisle. Wall monuments to Hugh, first
Earl Fortescue, d. 1841 and wife d. 1847 by Gould of Barnstaple, to Susan, wife of
Hugh, Viscount Ebrington d. 1827 to Lucy Fortescue, widow of Hugh Fortescue d. 1767.

Listing NGR: SS6625628045

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17532050

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

• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)