Description

SX 97 NW ASHCOMBE ASHCOMBE

8/4 Parish Church of St Nectan
30.6.61

GV I

Parish church. Fabric probably largely C13, north aisle added in the C15.
Substantial restoration of the 1820s by Salvin, interior refurbished 1885 (plaque in
church). Stone rubble with slate roofs.
Plan: C13 cruciform plan, most of the lancet windows are restored but may be copies
of the Early English originals ; north aisle added in the C15. Restoration and some
rebuilding by Salvin in the 1820s with Gothick interior details.
Exterior: chancel with set-back buttresses and a probably C19 Perpendicular east
window ; lancet window on the north side. Lancet window and one Y tracery early C19
window on the south side. Transepts with set back buttresses, the south transept
with single lancets to the east and west walls and a C19 Perpendicular window to the
south wall. North transept with triple lancet east window, C19 Perpendicular north
window. The aisle has 2 3-light cusped windows with depressed arches ; similar
windows to the nave. 3-stage tapering battlemented unbuttressed tower with an
internal north west stair turret. The west face has a C19 door to left of centre and
a ground floor window with C19 Y tracery ; 3-light C19 window above with a depressed
arch. C19 south porch with diagonal buttresses and a chamfered arched outer doorway
below a niche, early C19 inner doorway with a good early C19 Gothick door with blind
tracery, ceiled wagon roof with plaster moulded ribs with small bosses.
Interior: Plastered walls ; rounded moulded chancel arch on moulded responds with
carved capitals. 1820s tower arch flanked by pairs of engaged shafts with bell
capitals, the arch decorated with Gothick panelling and applied flowers. North
arcade with rounded moulded arches on carved capitals and plaster pendants above the
capitals in the spandrels. Ceiled wagon roofs, with moulded ribs, 1820s Gothick
ornamental gables at junction of walls plates and lateral ribs. The chancel has a
low trefoil-headed piscina on the south side and a C20 reredos: a rounded arch on the
south side may be a tomb recess. Fine probably C17 chair (not English) in the
chancel with inset panels. The nave has a good gilded timber eagle lectern dated
1735, on a big turned stem ; C19 octagonal font on a pink marble stem with slender
black marble shafts openwork font cover. Interesting and unusual set of C16 or C17
benches wih bench ends carved with 2 tiers of blind tracery, the borders carved with
grotesques, reptiles and snakes. Probably C17 chair with inlaid back in nave.
Memorials Wall tablet in chancel to Jane Parkyns, died 1817, signed Jago and Davey of
Dawlish.
Glass Fragments of late medieval C17 and C18 glass, including some Flemish roundels,
leaded into the east window in patterns, north transept east window with memorial
date 1885 probably by Drake of Exeter.
A rare example for Devon of a largely C13 church.
Devon Nineteenth Century Churches Project.

Listing NGR: SX9121079558

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17527373

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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