Description

TORQUAY

SX9164 ABBEY ROAD
885-1/14/9 (South West side)
Church of the Assumption of Our Lady

GV II

Roman Catholic church. 1853, by J Hansom, aisle and Lady
Chapel added 1858. Local grey limestone rubble with freestone
dressings; slate roofs. Decorated style.
PLAN: Part of a complex including a schoolroom and presbytery,
Abbey Road (qqv). Nave; chancel; north and south transepts;
north and south aisles; north-west porch.
EXTERIOR: Chancel lower than nave; gabled bellcote at
junction. North side has 3 windows to the chancel. Buttressed
transept with 3-light window with trefoil-headed lights, then
2 aisle bays, gabled to the north with buttresses with
battered set-offs and gables. Bay to west with a lean-to roof.
Gabled porch in westernmost bay with a chamfered arched
doorway, coped gable and statue niche. West end has a central
buttress flanked by one-light traceried windows with a
traceried sherical triangle above. 4 gables to the south
elevation.
INTERIOR: Roofs partly boxed-in with plasterboard, chancel
fittings and font late C20, otherwise much of Hansom's
interior survives, although the carved work, which is high
quality, has been sprayed silver and most of the painted
decoration covered in white paint. 4-bay nave with W end
gallery containing organ. NE Lady chapel. SE end used as
baptistry. 3-bay N & S arcades differ from one another - W bay
has low triple arcade into W ends of aisles. N arcade has
polished Italian columns and moulded capitals;
double-chamfered arches. Lean-to roof with timber trusses,
stone arch into transept. S aisle has different polished
marble shafts, the 2 easternmost columns clustered. S aisle
roof divided into separate bays with transverse members with
hammerbeam detail. Moulded chancel arch on short marble shafts
with Early English capitals, springing from carved heads.
Arcades from chancel into Lady Chapel and Baptistry, Baptistry
abuts chancel oddly with 2 arcades parallel to one another and
a sort of mini-aisle in timber posts.
Lady chapel has C19 stone carved (painted) brattished reredos
divided into bays by slender marble shafts. Stone altar table
on 3 shafts with Early English capitals. Baptistry has boarded
keeled wagon roof preserving C19 painted decoration. C20
pulpit incorporates carved figure panel that may have come
from C19 reredos. Beaten copper Stations of the Cross on the S
aisle wall. Most of the nave benches C19.
Remarkable wall monument in round-headed niche on S aisle
wall. Naturalistic white marble head of the Virgin above
inscription to Edward Melchior Jean Marie, Prince de Polignac,
composer of music, 1834-1901.
STAINED GLASS: E window by Hardman, 1860s, with the fading
peculiar to the firm's windows of this date. Fine set of late
C19 Hardman windows in the S aisle including one to Henry Cary
with a portrait figure of Cary on a bier at the base. Hardman
windows showing Marian symbols in side wall of the Lady chapel
and in the E window.
(The Buildings of England: Cherry B: Devon: London: 1989-:
P.851).

Listing NGR: SX9137664048

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Church of the Assumption of Our Lady at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q26568838

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

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  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
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  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
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  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
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  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
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  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
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  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)