Description

WIDECOMBE-IN- LEUSDON
SX 77 SW THE-MOOR
6/234 Church of St John the Baptist
-

- II

Parish church, originally a chapel-of-ease of Widecombe. 1863 by J W Rowell of
Newton Abbot, architect to the Palk estate. Squared granite rubble with details in
limestone, probably Bath stone. Slated roof. Nave, chancel, south porch, south
tower attached to junction of nave and chancel. Designed in a "geometrical
decorated style". Side-walls of nave have 2-light windows with pointed arches, the
lights with trefoiled heads and a quatrefoil in the head of the window. Chancel has
trefoiled lancet windows. East and west windows have trefoil-headed lights, 3 on
the east and 4 on the west, with 3 quatrefoils in the heads of the windows. 2-stage
tower with flanking buttresses at the base. In south face a clock under a
triangular stone canopy. Belfry has paired, trefoil-headed lancets in each face.
Thin bracketed cornice above, finished with a parapet.
Interior is very simple. Pointed, double-chamfered chancel arch of alternating
limestone and granite blocks. Carved limestone pulpit with grey marble balusters.
Octagonal limestone font with pink marble shaft. Carved wood reredos of circa 1907.
4 stained glass windows, 2 of them of circa 1879 and 1915; a third is inscribed
with the name A A Orr, Harrow, 1912, and the initials A A O appear on the window of
circa 1915.
Built and endowed by Mrs C R Larpent "in lieu of the long ruined chapel of St
Leonard, at Spitchwick".
Sources: information from the C19 Devon Churches Research Group.
White's Directory of Devonshire, 1878, p.849. R Dymond, ed., Widecombe-in-the-Moor,
1876, p.21.

Listing NGR: SX7094873200

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26535134

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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