Description

TORQUAY

SX9265 ST ALBANS ROAD, Babbacombe
885-1/12/318 (East side)
20/11/52 Parish Church of All Saints

I

Parish church. 1868-74 to the designs of William Butterfield.
Snecked local grey limestone rubble; yellow sandstone
dressings; natural slate roof with crested ridge tiles; porch
roof with bands of slate and lead.
PLAN: Nave; chancel; north and south aisles; south-east
transept; north-east vestry; south-west porch.
EXTERIOR: North side has a 6-bay aisle with buttresses with
set-offs and gables. Decorated-style traceried windows, paired
in one bay, with a variety of head tracery forms; western bay
with more domestic 2-light window. 4 gabled quatrefoil
clerestoried windows (post Butterfield). Gabled vestry in the
form of a transept with a large chimneystack on the east side
and a sexagonal turret with a pyramidal stone roof with a
carved finial. Turret integrated with lean-to porch with
shouldered doorway; original door.
3-centred arched doorway on north side with 2 unglazed
quatrefoil windows and 3-light traceried windows above.
Buttressed chancel, the east wall decorated with diapering of
stone quatrefoils; 5-light traceried east window with shafts
on mullions. The south return of the chancel is decorated with
stone lattice work and 2 vessica windows.
The south side is the show front, the south transept with a
gabled buttress between 2-light traceried windows. 4-bay south
aisle with lean-to roof; traceried Decorated windows; 4
clerestory windows match those on the north.
South-west porch with hipped roof and set back gabled
buttresses.
Moulded outer and inner doorways, the outer doorway with
engaged shafts with a recessed panel of stone diapering above
the arch. 2-leaf inner door with original ornamental strap
hinges.
4-stage west tower with a stone spire with tall louvred
lucarnes; projecting south-east 5-sided stair turret; set back
buttresses rise to belfry stage. Richly-moulded
cinquefoil-headed west doorway with original ironwork to the
doors. Tall 2-light traceried window above that, 2 cusped
roundels. Diaper stone work below belfry stage with a vessica
window. 3-light Geometric Decorated traceried belfry window
with marble panels below the sill, upper tier of belfry
diapered.
INTERIOR: Spectacular for its elaborate surface treatment and
constructional polychromy. Arcades with cylindrical marble
columns and double-chamfered arches. Arcade walls with
septfoils in the spandrels, covered with a lattice of blind
tracery over patterned brick and tiles. Nave and chancel roofs
5-sides with painted decoration; aisle roofs with stone ribs
and paired rafters. Large 2-light traceried arches between
chancel aisles and chancel. Chancel described by
Goodhart-Rendel as "beyond all praise in its inspired
strangeness" (quoted in Pevsner) with a marble dado and
diapered walls; marble floor; aumbry and sedilia; painted
ceiling.
FITTINGS: Marble reredos integral with east wall decoration
with a cinquefoil-headed recess for a metal crucifix. Lectern,
candlesticks and altar cross 1871 by Butterfield. Chancel
mosaics by Salviati. Metalwork includes 7 elaborate hanging
lamps; processional cross. Nave fittings include an openwork
pulpit of tiers of shafts and arcades and an extraordinary
polychromatic marble font with tiers of arcading on shafts.
Other fittings include a large cope chest.
Various C19 wall monuments of interest at the east end of the
north aisle; memorial brass to Anna Maria Hanbury, d.1877, to
the designs of Butterfield. 1874 east window by Gibbs.
Described in Pevsner as "one of Butterfield's most important
churches".
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1952-1989:
P.848).

Listing NGR: SX9247665271

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17528041

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

• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)