Description

PAIGNTON

SX86SE BLAGDON ROAD, Collaton St Mary
1947-1/2/171 (North East side)
13/03/51 Parish Church of St Mary

GV II*

Parish church. Foundation stone laid 21 September 1864;
consecration 24 March 1866. Designed by JW Rowell of Newton
Abbot for the Rev. John Roughton Hogg of Blagdon as a memorial
to Hogg's daughter, Mary, who died in 1864 aged 17. Contractor
Harvey of Torquay; carved work by Mr Jackman of Teignmouth.
Early Decorated Gothic Revival style.
MATERIALS: Local red snecked breccia on a local grey limestone
plinth, Bathstone dressings; natural slate roof laid in bands
of grey and purple; crested ridge tiles; cast-iron rainwater
goods.
PLAN: 4-bay nave; 2-bay chancel; SW tower with porch adjoining
E wall; vestry and organ chamber to N side of chancel.
EXTERIOR: Very unaltered. Nave and chancel with buttresses
with coped set-offs; window arches with white and cream stone
banded voussoirs and hoodmoulds with carved label stops. Show
front on S side, high above the road. Chancel lower than nave
which has a stone cross on the east gable. Chancel with angle
buttresses; moulded string on east wall rises to sill of
3-light traceried east window; trefoil window in gable. S side
of chancel with 2 trefoil-headed one-light windows. Lean-to
vestry-cum-organ chamber on N side has E window of 2
shouldered lights set in a chamfered, arched blind recess. N
side has shouldered priest's door flanked by shouldered
windows. Nave gutters carried on moulded timber brackets.
2-light plate-traceried nave windows with pointed quatrefoil
in the head. W end of nave, flush with W wall of tower, has
tall central buttress flanked by 2-light windows, moulded
string and angle buttress at NW corner. Traceried roundel
window with banded stone frame in gable.
3-stage tower with internal NE stair; parapet pierced with
quatrefoils; moulded string interrupted by angle buttresses
with coped gables, which change to clasping buttresses at
belfry stage and terminate in tall pyramidal pinnacles with
crocketed finials.
W face of tower has small shouldered doorway below one-light
window; Bathstone band above with 2 blind quatrefoils. Belfry
stage is recessed between buttresses with a corbelled cornice
above; 2 belfry lancets, the louvres with scalloped lead
drips.
S face of tower similar but stone band incorporates an 1866
clock-face under a gabled, cusped hood carried carved corbels.
Deep lean-to porch adjoins E side of tower. Moulded outer
doorway with detached shafts with bell capitals. Row of 4
small lancet windows on E side of porch, each with stone
shafts and a continuous hoodmould. INTERIOR of porch has a W
wall recess with long bench with wooden seat; hollow-chamfered
inner doorway with text on tin above.
INTERIOR: Remarkably well-preserved set of 1860s fittings and
decoration. Plastered walls; double-chamfered red and white
stone banded chancel arch carried on short polished limestone
shafts with stiff-leaf capitals and naturalistic carved
corbels.
4-bay stout nave roof with intermediate trusses; principals
and purlins carried on moulded stone corbels. Arch-braced
trusses with cranked collars below scissor braces, the arch
braces treated like jointed crucks. 2-bay chancel roof with 2
intermediate trusses: main truss with cusped braces below a
collar with short curved braces above. Trusses carried on
flower-carved corbels; purlins on moulded corbels.
Nave includes a small door on the S side into the tower and
above it, a blind triple arcade with painted inscription.
Grand marble font on freestone steps to S side of nave, given
by Miss Durant of Sharpham (qv Ashprington parish) carved by
Earp to the designs of Bentley. Square bowl on polished marble
column with corner shafts. Bowl with chamfered corners
decorated with good figures of seated saints, mosaics on sides
include symbolds of the evangelists. Steps incorporate
encaustic tiles with inscription and date of 1865. Elaborate
openwork timber font cover with buttresses and pyramidal
pinnacle; original lifting mechanism survives with probably
original polychromatic painting to the weight.
Simple Portland stone pulpit consisting of an obtuse angled
stone screen with a cornice, the centre broken forward and
taller, flanked by marble shafts. Set of simple open benches
to nave with Y-shaped ends.
2 probably 1860s corona lucis in the nave are complete with
probably original polychromatic painting and texts.
Chancel includes double-chamfered arch to organ chamber;
trefoil-headed priest's door on N side and shouldered aumbry
with polished marble shafts.
Elaborate, large, stone reredos, designed by Bentley and
carved by Earp, sculpture by Phyffers. Reredos commemorating
Rev. Hogg has brattished cornice and central sculptured
section flanked by tall, slender buttresses with elaborate
surface carving. Sculpture depicts the Last Supper.
2 flanking bays across east wall and one each to the N and S
returns have trefoil-headed arcading over marble herringbone
blocks. Bays on east wall divided by carved angels on marble
shafts.
Sanctuary rail with painted cast-iron standards and pretty
wrought- and cast-iron curly leaf spandrels. Choir stalls also
of the 1860s with poppy-head finials and book rest with
painted cast and wrought-iron standards. Painted text on tin
on S wall of chancel.
Stained glass includes E and 2 S chancel windows designed by
Bentley and executed by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake.
HISTORY: Hogg owned the Blagdon estate in Paignton.
Group value with school, lych gate and rectory, all also of
the 1860s and promoted by Hogg. Pevsner comments on the
"evocative Victorian group of small village church, school and
rectory". The church, although modest in scale, is remarkably
complete with very few post 1860's additions and alterations.
The high quality font and reredos are outstanding; the
ironwork, with extensive survival of original colour, is a
rare and precious survival.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N and Cherry B: Devon: London:
1952-1989: 839; Collaton St Mary Parish Magazine: 1916-).

Listing NGR: SX8642760176

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Church of St Mary, Collaton St Mary at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q5117510

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

• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)