Description

TIVERTON

SS9512 FORE STREET, Tiverton
848-1/6/188 Church of St George
12/02/52

GV I

Church. Begun 1714-1716 to the designs of John James, the
designer of St George, Hanover Square. Completed 1727-1733
after a period of use as a warehouse (Pevsner). Late C19
alterations.
MATERIALS: Ham Hill ashlar with very fine joints; lead roof
with lead rolls.
PLAN: the church is sited on the corner of Fore Street and St
Andrew Street with a show front on the north side (to Fore
Street) with a small railed churchyard in front and quite a
grand west end ensemble on the corner with St Andrew Street,
setting off the late Victorian Town Hall opposite. The plan is
a 5-bay galleried box with a shallow chancel, arranged
symmetrically with opposed doors to the west and east.
EXTERIOR: rusticated quoins, plinth, deep projecting eaves
cornice with delicate dentil frieze. Round-headed windows have
plain proud architraves. The 5-bay north side of the nave has
outer bays with segmental-headed doorways with moulded
architraves below large moulded stone cornices with ramshorn
consoles on anthemion-carved corbels. Pitched stone paths
across the churchyard lead to steps with ramped wreathed
railings up to 2-leaf panelled doors with fielded panels.
Segmental headed windows are probably late C19 reglazing with
cast-iron glazing bars and small, square leaded panes with Art
Nouveau borders. The gallery windows are taller with plain
aprons to the centre three windows.
Similar south elevation, south-east door renewed, south-west
door has a pretty overlight with round-headed lights; good
door furniture to the original doors including a metal drawbar
to the south-west door. The 3-bay west end rises high above
the level of St Andrew's Street on a stepped plinth.
The centre bay is a pedimented projection with blind windows
matching those on the north and south sides and smaller
recesses on either side. Above the pediment there is a stone
pilastered bellcote with louvred round-headed openings and a
tent lead roof with a weathervane.
The outer bays have windows matching those on the north and
south sides. The east end has a large east window with no
apron.
INTERIOR: internal porches on the north side have fielded
panels. Plastered barrel roof to nave with shallower barrels
over the north & south galleries. The central roof is divided
into 2 bays by plain ribs and has good plaster ceiling roses
to every other bay. Ceiling roses but no ribs to the gallery
roofs.
The roof bay over the chancel is a panelled ceilure with
decorated mouldings and miniature plaster ceiling roses -
Pevsner reports cast-iron roof construction here, possibly a
late C19 amendment.
Portland stone square piers with recessed corners and moulded
capitals support Ionic columns to the north and south
galleries. Gallery frontals have timber fielded panels.
Gallery walls are decorated with Ionic pilasters and a moulded
cornice.
The west gallery, which is very deep and supported on two
cast-iron columns may have been altered but retains a timber
cartouche on the frontal.
Symmetrical staircases to the west gallery plus staircases at
the east end on the north & south sides. The stairs are C18
with tapering turned balusters and a moulded handrail.
The floor of the north & south galleries is squinted up to
accommodate the height of the nave windows. Black and white
tiled floor to nave.
FITTINGS: the chancel is lined with good panelling with reeded
Corinthian pilasters and an entablature with an egg and dart
frieze and a dentil cornice. The panels contain pedimented
recesses with console brackets, the two flanking the altar
with the text of the ten commandments.
Timber altar table, probably late C19 in a C17 style. Good C18
timber altar rails with curved corners and alternate
barleysugar and tapering balusters. Timber pulpit dated 1878
in a classical style - a drum with a cornice of arabesques and
acanthus with carved saints under round-headed niches all on a
bracketed stem. Probably late C19 stone font in west end
baptistry with an octagonal carved bowl. Late C19 benches with
shaped ends to the nave.
Gallery seating is tiered and may be C18 with panelled ends.
East window in a painterly manner by Beer of Exeter is dated
1846. Several good C18 and early C19 white marble wall
monuments including one to Henry Blagdon, d.1746. Patent vent
system on nave walls consists of timber boxes and method of
opening and closing external vents.
HISTORY: Dunsford, writing in 1790 reports that the original
pulpit stood at the west end of the central aisle.
This is the best C18 church in Devon which compares well to
the best examples of the period elsewhere in the country. It
was begun, according to Pevsner, with a view to accommodating
dissenters in Tiverton. Externally and internally it is very
urbane and, as Pevsner states, it has a "harmonious interior
little disturbed by later alterations".
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1989-:
810-811; Dunsford: Historical Memoirs of the Town and Parish
of Tiverton: 1790-: 340).

Listing NGR: SS9542712459

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St George's Church, Tiverton at Wikipedia
• St George's Church, Tiverton official website
• Wikidata Q15979349

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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