Description

ST31SE
2/29

DOWLISH WAKE CP
DOWLISH WAKE VILLAGE
Church of St Andrew

4.2.58

GV
II*
Anglican parish church. Fragment of chancel C13, tower early C14, some C15 work. Mostly rebuilt 1861-62, B.Ferrey Architect. H.Davis of Taunton builder. Ham stone cut and squared, ashlar dressings: Welsh slate roof between stepped cooed gables.

Five-cell plan of single-bay chancel, crossing with tower; two-bay north-east (Smoke) chapel, three-bay nave and north aisle, with south porch and north east vestry. Chancel, mostly C19, has chamfered plinth; eaves course and angled corner buttresses: east window three-light with Seometric style tracery, and south window two-light to match, both with labels and leaf-with-bird stop ends; in south-west corner a moulded pointed-arched doorway.

The Speke Chapel has some early C15 work, but the east wall partly rebuilt; plinth, eaves course; angled corner and bay buttresses; windows three-light to east and two-light to the two north bays, all with C15 style tracery set in hollowed recesses: C19 matching vestry projects from west bay, its north gable having a C14 style traceried two-light window with label, and a flat-arched doorway in the east wall. North side aisle a late C19 rebuild of C15 work, with plinth, string course and plain parapet, angled corner and bay buttresses; three-light segmental-arched windows in shallow recesses with almost art-nouveau tracery; the west window a three-light with C15 style tracery and headstone label.

Nave has angled corner and bay buttresses; plinth and eaves course; three-light C19 windows with C14 style tracery and headstop arched labels in south wall; the west window also C19; four-light with Curvilinear tracery with bird-and-leaf stop label, under which is a blocked moulded pointed-arched doorway. South porch C14, but largely rebuilt; plinth; angled corner buttresses, with moulded pointed pointed outer arch, label and over-label scroll lettered 'surely the Lord is in this place', and in gable a small figure of St Andrew in an arched recess, inner door more elaborately moulded, with another St Andrew figure in recess over.

Tower in three stages, with plinth and north-south corner buttresses, string courses, tripled above stage one, and battlemented parapet, with hexagonal plan stair turret to north-east corner slightly higher than remainder of tower: the south face of stage one has a three-light C15 style window with label; stage two has a cusped lancet on north side and a two-light plate tracery window to west, both of these repeated in stage three; south lace has a clock dial stage two, and stage three south and stages two and three east faces have two-light C14/C15 style windows without labels.

Interior essentially C19, with open timber roofs and plastered walls; chancel has a C19 painted reredos: the crossing has tall C13 or early C14 double-chamfer arches with moulded caps, otherwise the main fabric apparently C19.

In the Speke chapel is a C11 or C12 font, tub pattern with arcaded sides, from the church of West Dowlish, demolished by 1575; between this chapel and the chancel a somewhat restored table tomb with effigies of Joane (nee Keynes) and John Speke, died 1442; in north wall of chapel a marble and stone monument with life-size bust of John Hanninq Speke, the discoverer of the source of the River Nile, died 1864; and in a trefoil cusped recess west of this an effigy of Isabel Wake, died 1359: also a brass to George Speke, died 1528,"builder of this part of the church'.

Remaining fittings C19, but in the south wall of nave a fine C15 canopied statue niche, presumably removed and reset, with a C20 St Andrew statue. A photograph taken before the restoration, in the north chapel, shows that little was left unaltered, except parts of the tower. First recorded rector 1313.

Listing NGR: ST3756612944

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Church of St Andrew, Dowlish Wake at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17554972

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

• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair