Description

BRIDFORD BRIDFORD
SX 88 NW
2/44 Church of St Thomas A Becket
30.6.61
GV I
Parish church. Chancel C14, remainder of church C15 with some early C16 fittings.
Granite rubble and ashlar with slate roof and granite, volcanic and freestone
dressings.
Plan: West tower, nave, chancel, 4-bay north aisle, south porch, lean-to north-east
vestry.
Exterior: Rubblestone chancel with a 3-light Decorated east window. The south side
has a buttress with set-offs, a chamfered rounded priest's doorway, a 1-light
cusped C19 Ham Hill window to the left and a medieval Decorated volcanic 2-light
window to the right with a C19 hood mould and a rectangular ashlar granite rood
stair turret. Granite ashlar nave with an unusually large, grand Perpendicular
window to the right of the porch with a granite frame, freestone Perpendicular
tacery and mullions with capitals; smaller 3-light Perpendicular window to left of
porch with granite mullions and freestone tracery. Granite ashlar 4-bay north
aisle with 3-light Perpendicular windows with granite mullions and C19 freestone
tracery; similar east window; 2-light square-headed granite west window with
decayed cusped freestone heads and replaced granite mullions. 3 stage battlemented
granite ashlar tower, the belfry stage rubblestone with corner obelisks and
internal northwest stair turret. Double-chamfered rounded west doorway; 3-light
decorated west window with volcanic tracery and granite mullions; 2-light chamfered
belfry openings on all 4 faces; moulded rectangular opening at bellringers' stage
on south face. Gabled granite ashlar porch with angle buttresses with set-offs;
rounded, moulded granite outer doorway with C19 timber gates and a moulded inner
doorway with a C17 plank and coverstrip door. Unusually refined Perpendicular
boarded wagon roof, boarded behind the ribs to porch: the ribs carved with beaded
ribbons with delicately-carved bosses at the intersections.
Interior: Remarkable early C16 screen and other good fittings. Unplastered walls;
timber chancel arch at junction between nave and chancel roof; plain tower arch;
conventional late C15/early C16 Perpendicular granite north arcade. Probably
Perpendicular ceiled wagon roof to nave and aisle, carved bosses to the nave; C19
keeled boarded wagon to the chancel with moulded ribs. Notable 8-bay rood screen,
said to have once had a 1508 date: the rood loft and coving are missing, but what
survives is richly carved and coloured with unusual lively carved, (rather than
painted) wainscot figures, probably the model for the C17 figures on the Lustleigh
screen. Granite doorframe to rood loft stair, rebated for a door. The pulpit is
formed of similar panels. 4-bay Perpendicular traceried parclose: the parclose and
rear of the rood screen have large demi-figures of a probably C17 date painted on
the wainscot. The chancel has piscina with an ogival chamfered arch, C19 timber
altar rail and an east window, probably by Drake of Exeter with a memorial date of
1872. Fragments of C15 stained glass in the south windows; chair made up of pieces
of medieval carving in the early C19. The nave has square-headed C19 bench ends
and a granite octagonal front on a volcanic stem and plinth. 1661 Royal Arms
painted on a board above the south door; early C18 wall monument to Emanuel Hall,
died 1703, with an inscription recording a charity, in a moulded frame on the south
wall. C15 glass; the remains of a scheme by the Doddiscombsleigh atelier in the
east window of the Lady chapel, includes figures and armorial bearings.
Devon Nineteenth Century Churches Project
Brooks, C and Evans, D, unpublished notes on the stained glass of Bridford Church.
Reverend Carrington, "Parochiales Bridfordii", MS in DRO includes description of
changes to the church in the early C19.

Listing NGR: SX8160486385

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17527257

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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