Description

TORQUAY

SX9164 UNION STREET
885-1/14/290 (North East side)
10/01/75 Parish Church of St Mary Magdalene
(Formerly Listed as:
UPPER UNION STREET, Upton
Church of St Mary Magdalene)

GV II*

Parish church. 1843-9 to the designs of A Salvin, contractor
Jacob Harvey; altered and partly re-fitted under GG Scott
1881-2; further embellishment 1906 and 1927 funded by the
Luxmore family. Local grey limestone rubble with Bathstone
dressings; slate roof.
PLAN: Nave; chancel with polygonal apse; 5-bay north and south
arcades; north-east and south-east transepts; south-east
tower. Early English style to Salvin's original.
EXTERIOR: South elevation (show front) has a buttressed 5-bay
aisle with lancet windows, the nave clerestory with paired
lancet windows to each bay flanked by blind recesses, all
decorated with arcading. Buttressed transepts with lancet
windows.
Gabled porch in second bay from the west with a 2-centred
moulded outer doorway with shafts with bell capitals and a
2-leaf door with blind traceried panels below an arched
fanlight.
Projecting 3-stage tower with 2-stage south-east stair turret
to east has angle buttresses; blind arcading to the second
stage; triple windows to the belfry stage; clock in stone
frame on south face. Buttresses terminate in crocketed
spirelets with 2 tiers of blind arcading. 5-sided apse with
lancet windows with moulded architraves and dripmoulds. Pairs
of side windows to chancel are 2-light with Y tracery. West
end of nave buttressed with big finials. 2-centred moulded
west doorway with shafts below a tall Early English arcade,
alternating blank and glazed openings; roundel window in gable
with 4 trefoils. Single lancet windows to west ends of aisles.
INTERIOR: The relatively plain Salvin work is set off against
lavish late Victorian and early C20 fittings. Double-chamfered
chancel arch; arcades with cylindrical columns with moulded
capitals and double-chamfered arches. Arch-braced nave roof on
carved corbels with 2 tiers of purlins and slender wind braces
to each tier. Open lean-to timber aisle roofs, the eastern
bays separately roofed. West end slightly recessed behind
superordinate arch to windows with a narrow west end gallery
on top of a quatrefoil-pierced west end stone screen. Chancel
roof coved below wall-plate. North and south transepts
screened off with marble and stone traceried screens: organ
chamber screen to the south is earlier with iron grille above;
chapel screen to north of 1905 bows out as a stone sounding
board, with carved vaulting and statues, to the stone drum
pulpit by Temple Moore (Ellis) with statue niches on a marble
base.
Nave FITTINGS include a set of poppyhead bench ends and a
small octagonal font with an arcaded stem and shallow carvings
on the bowl.
Sumptuous chancel fittings of 2 phases: G G Scott and the
early C20 work. Some C20 repainting.
Roof coving with painted decoration on boards below a
brattished fascia carved with angels. Coving supported on
deep, painted timber brackets, also carved with angles. Below
each bracket a set of 6 large stone statues on corbels with
stone traceried canopies above. Sanctuary wall lined with
marble incorporating a bishops throne and sedilia.
Massive reredos flanked by stone traceried screen walls
(modelled on the Perpendicular Totnes screen) crowned with
statues under vaulted stone canopies. 2-phase reredos: the
lower tier of the Scott phase with a moulded marble frame
containing alabaster relief scenes under canopies. The upper
tier rises to the roof and consists of 3 buttressed bays of
open masonry with statue niches, the central figure almost
life size under a canopy with a crocketed spire.
Choir stalls with crocketed carved ends, the rear stalls
marble below friezes of carved stone panels, the figures in a
classical style below ogee-headed canopies.
Brass sanctuary rail; marble chancel screen with blind
traceried panels. Extraordinary north-east chapel of c1927,
dominated by a massive painting of Salvator Mundi in a timber
traceried frame by T Mostyn (Pevsner) with a massive timber
altar with a fine pair of large sculpted, gilded timber
angels.
STAINED GLASS includes apse windows of the 1860s (now
concealed by the reredos) and west window by Wailes (Pevsner).
Excellent collection of C19 prints and photographs inside the
church illustrate its development and incumbents and patrons
associated with it. This includes a photograph of the tower
before its completion.
(Ellis CA: An Historical Survey of Torquay, 2nd edition:
1930-: P.444-445; Buildings of England: Cherry B: Devon:
London: 1952-1989: P.850).

Listing NGR: SX9128964366

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17550074

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

• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)