Listing Text

EAST WORLINGTON EAST WORLINGTON
SS 71 SE
8/21 Church of St Mary
20.2.67
GV II
Parish Church. C12 origins, C15 chancel; tower and nave completely rebuilt 1879 by
Clark of Newmarket for the 5th Earl of Portsmouth; nave C12 doorway the only feature
remaining from the earlier church; chancel also reskinned and reroofed in 1879.
Built by Mr Selly of Witheridge. Local stone from the Coombe Quarry, now disused on
the road to Witheridge, some Bathstone dressings. Snecked rubble; gabled slate
roofs, coped verges, crested clay ridges to nave and porch.
Plan: nave, chancel, west tower, south porch. Loose neo-Norman style, simple and on
a very small scale, not typical of the 1870's.
Exterior: squat 3-stage tower with battlements and false machicolations, semi-
circular head west window with flanking shafts, bullseyes to ringing-chamber stage,
semi-circular head bell openings, nook shafts, with louvres. 3-bay nave with 2
hook-shafted semi-circular head windows to the south, 3 C15 style 2-light square-
headed windows to the north, (copies of earlier windows?). Chancel with a semi-
circular head Norman lancet to the north, 2 cinquefoiled square-headed C15 2-light
windows to the south, east window of the restoration with C13-type intersecting
tracery (a copy of an earlier window?). Simple gabled porch, Norman inner doorway,
the outer arch moulding with zig-zag rests on a beak-head to the left, 3 inner arch
bands of saltaire crosses.
Interior: with rough surface plastered walls with a stone-coloured colourwash, some
scribing to resemble ashlar around the windows. Concrete, tile, and encaustic tile
floors. Nave with simple C19 arch-braced collar-beam roof on corbels, chancel under
C19 tie-beam roof. Neo-Norman tower and chancel arches. Most fittings remain from
1879 including simple stained pine pews, neo-Norman font with cover, pulpit,
lectern, choir stalls, reader and altar rails. Elaborate wood panelled altar table
may be slightly later. Good wall monument to chancel of 1668 to Bridget Colman,
central inscription panel, below stage with flanking cherubs, achievement over. 4
early and mid C19 wall monuments in Classical style. Plaque commemorating (sic)
rebuilding. Stained glass to south chancel window. C15 style, top light C15,
remainder late C19 work. Nave windows and windows under tower with cast-iron
casements, diamond-paned lights, obscured glass. Charity plaque of 1834 under
tower. Stuart Royal Arms in nave, C20 overpainting.
Source: Pevsner N., Buildings of England, North Devon, 1952; Hodgson Rev. H. J in
Chulmleigh Deanery Parochial Magazine, March - June, 1927.

Listing NGR: SS7749513723