Description

DODDISCOMBSLEIGH PERRY LANE, Doddiscombsleigh
SX 88 NE
3/129 Church of St Michael
30.6.61
GV I
Parish church. C15, substantially rebuilt and restored in the late 1870s (church
reopened 1879), architect Edward Ashworth of Exeter. Stone rubble with polychromatic
detail to the 1870s north wall, bottom stage of tower dressed granite ; volcanic,
freestone and granite dressings ; slate roof with crested ridge tiles.
Plan: nave, chancel, west tower, 5-bay north aisle, south porch. The medieval work
is Perpendicular but with some idiosycratic detail to the tower. The Ashworth
restoration involved rebuilding the chancel and nave walls, re-roofing chancel and
nave, repairing aisle roof, windows and arcade, re-dressing the tower arch and
renewing the porch. Re-seating (nd.) by Harbottle.
Exterior: 3-light C19 intersecting traceried east window to chancel with
polychromatic banding to the east wall, east wall of aisle flush with chancel with a
3-light Perpendicular east window. On the south side the nave/chancel division is
marked by a C19 buttress : shouldered moulded stone priest's doorway to chancel
flanked by 2-light C19 windows with Y tracery, 2-light C19 Perpendicular window to
the nave. The south wall is constructed of mixed colour masonry with limestone
voussoirs to the windows and a similar relieving arch over the priest's door. The
north aisle has 4 3-light Perpendicular windows with considerable C19 replacement of
stonework with a single lancet to the west ; 2-light west window with 2 chamfered
lancets. 3-stage battlemented west tower with obelisk pinnacles and unusually
positioned buttreses, in the centre of the north and south faces. Small 1-light
opening at bellringers' stage in east face ; 2-light arched chamfered openings to the
belfry on all 4-faces ; shallow-moulded arched granite west doorway medieval 3-light
granite Perpendicular west windows. Largely C19 porch on the south side with a cross
on the gable, double-chamfered outer doorway, a chamfered granite inner doorway with
pyramid stops and C19 door with strap hinges. The porch has a C19 moulded stopped
arched brace roof.
Interior: Outstanding for the C15 glass in the north aisle, the most complete scheme
of medieval stained glass in Devon outside the Cathedral. Plastered walls ; slender
timber chancel arch ; double-chamfered granite tower arch on big corbels ; painted,
richly-moulded 5-bay Beerstone Perpendicular arcade with carved foliage capitals.
Late 1870s moulded unceiled wagon to nave with carved foliage bosses; co-eval boarded
wagon to chancel ; C15 keeled boarded wagon to aisle. The chancel has a C20 timber
reredos by Wippell and Co of Exeter, a 1917 timber altar and a trefoil-headed aumbry.
Nave with C18 cut down timber drum pulpit ; octagonal stone bowl to the font with an
open traceried cover of 1901 : the bowl rests on what may a C12 font with cable
moulding. C16 bench ends with blank quatrefoils above rounded blank arches, some
fixed to later benches.
Stained Glass: Chancel east window by Morris Drake, 1912. 2 chancel windows on south
side probably Frederick Drake. Outstanding survival of late C15 stained glass in the
north aisle by the Doddiscombsleigh atelier who were probably based in Exeter where
they provided glass for the Cathedral. The scheme at Doddiscombsleigh has the
remains of a text and armorial bearings suggesting the scheme celebrates a Chudleigh
Dodscombe marriage. The 4 windows on the south side have single figures to each
light the highest quality glass is in the iconographically interesting seven
sacraments east window. The central figure of Christ was supplied by Clayton and
Bell (the original figure was probably standing (q.v. Cadbury) ; stylized streams of
blood from Christ's wounds link the central figure to lively scenes of the seven
sacraments with notable domestic and costume detail. Clayton and Bell also restored
the 4 windows on the south side.
Memorials: wall monument in aisle to John Bibb, died 1647.
Outstanding survival of medieval stained glass scheme.
Devon Nineteenth Century Churches Project.
Brooks, C.L. and Evans, D., unpublished notes on the stained glass of
Doddiscombsleigh Church.

Listing NGR: SX8576286556

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17527387

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

• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)