Description

NEWTON ABBOT

SX8571 WAVERLEY ROAD
1012-1/8/133 (East side)
16/07/49 Church of St Mary Abbotsbury
(Formerly Listed as:
WAVERLEY ROAD
Church of St Mary)

II*

Church. 1904-1906, dated 1905 on rainwater heads. By EH
Sedding.
MATERIALS: rock-faced Devon limestone rubble with freestone
dressings and slate roof.
STYLE: Free Perpendicular Gothic.
PLAN: cruciform.
EXTERIOR: C15 central east window transferred from St Mary's
Chapel, Highweek Street, has curvilinear star-shaped tracery
found in other local churches and is surrounded by crocketed
niches and badges of the Yarde and Ferrers families.
Buttresses gabled to the upper offsets, weathered to the lower
two, step well forward to the line of a lean-to single-storey
range below the window.
The long 6-bay nave is articulated by flying buttresses
supporting at the eaves octagonal plinths intended for
conical-roofed octagonal turrets (only those to the front have
them) and terminated by deep wall-like gabled piers. Two-light
traceried clerestorey windows with segmental arches are over
shallow pointed-arched 3-light windows to the aisles. The
north transept has a tall 4-light window and a timber belfry
to the left return.
The west front is flanked by offset buttresses which step
forward in stages to flank a single-storey pent-roofed
baptistery with C20 central doors flanked by buttresses
supporting two broken niches and two 2-light trefoil-headed
windows to each side. The slightly-pointed, almost
semicircular-arched west window has 2 chamfered mullions and
swirling tracery made popular by the architect's uncle JD
Sedding.
INTERIOR: smooth stone-faced walls; panelled barrel-vaulted
roof with foliate corbels; pointed arches on deeply-chamfered,
almost octagonal piers with colonettes to the nave side
connected by foliate bands at impost level and engaged to the
slightly-projecting clerestory wall which has foliate bosses
to the coving of the lower edge and small pierced quatrefoil
panels above the coving. The ceilings of the aisles are
articulated by pointed stone arches.

The chancel has a pointed arch and a slightly lower ceiling
similar to that of the nave; an ornate crested rood screen
with 8 open panels to the top over a wide arch to the centre
and 2 panels to each side; an elaborately-carved crested
reredos and an organ to the left; a marble floor and communion
rail with carved pierced panels; fine carved chior stalls.
In the nave, to the front-left of the rood screen are sweeping
stairs to a carved octagonal pulpit on 8 columns with a
crested tester.
FITTINGS: include a font on a pedestal to the north aisle, an
eagle lectern, and good original 4-light wrought-iron
chandeliers.
GLASS: some stained glass to the east window and aisles, other
windows have subtle cobweb-pattern leading.
(BoE: Pevsner N & Cherry B: Devon: London: 1989-: 586).

Listing NGR: SX8572971524

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17535688

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

• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)