Listing Text

ILFRACOMBE

SS5147 CHURCH ROAD
853-1/6/31 Parish Church of Holy Trinity
15/06/51

GV I

Anglican parish church. Transeptal tower and other masonry
C13; enlarged c1321 by order of Bishop Stapledon (lengthening
of the nave and addition of aisles); aisles widened C15; N
chancel aisle added C15; restoration by John Hayward, 1861-4.
Vestry, 1894 by Henry Wilson.
MATERIALS: mostly random rubble slate walls, some rendered;
limestone dressings; Welsh slate roof.
PLAN: nave with aisles of 4 bays; chancel of 4; N and S
chancel aisles; N transeptal tower (now partially internal due
to widening of N aisle); SE vestries.
EXTERIOR: windows entirely renewed by Hayward, mostly 4-light
in conventional Perpendicular style. One or two dressed
features survive from before this time including a small
blocked window set low at W end of S aisle. Sundial dated 1788
over porch doorway. Plaque dated 1864 commemorates rebuilding
of S wall.
Storeyed vestries set transeptally with polygonal stair
turret; 2-light window to each floor, that to 1st under
moulded pointed arch. The strangely detailed doorway arch, the
rainwater hopper and the weather vane on the small spire that
surmounts the turret are free Arts and Crafts in style (cf the
lych gate to S also by Wilson).
INTERIOR: fully described in Pevsner and Cherry. Special
attention may be drawn to the fine set of wagon roofs,
substantially renewed and adapted over the chancel by Fellowes
Prynne in 1899. Nave roof rests on stone corbels representing
mythical beasts that may be older than the timber roof. The
Victorian glass (all attributed in Pevsner and Cherry) form an
extremely interesting and varied collection.
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N and Cherry B: Devon: 2nd
ed.: London: 1989-: 501).

Listing NGR: SS5140747304