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

• Wikidata Q17535688

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Recommended Books

• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair