Description

TORQUAY

SX9265 ST ALBANS ROAD, Babbacombe 885-1/12/318 (East side) 20/11/52 Parish Church of All Saints

I

Parish church. 1868-74 to the designs of William Butterfield. Snecked local grey limestone rubble; yellow sandstone dressings; natural slate roof with crested ridge tiles; porch roof with bands of slate and lead. PLAN: Nave; chancel; north and south aisles; south-east transept; north-east vestry; south-west porch. EXTERIOR: North side has a 6-bay aisle with buttresses with set-offs and gables. Decorated-style traceried windows, paired in one bay, with a variety of head tracery forms; western bay with more domestic 2-light window. 4 gabled quatrefoil clerestoried windows (post Butterfield). Gabled vestry in the form of a transept with a large chimneystack on the east side and a sexagonal turret with a pyramidal stone roof with a carved finial. Turret integrated with lean-to porch with shouldered doorway; original door. 3-centred arched doorway on north side with 2 unglazed quatrefoil windows and 3-light traceried windows above. Buttressed chancel, the east wall decorated with diapering of stone quatrefoils; 5-light traceried east window with shafts on mullions. The south return of the chancel is decorated with stone lattice work and 2 vessica windows. The south side is the show front, the south transept with a gabled buttress between 2-light traceried windows. 4-bay south aisle with lean-to roof; traceried Decorated windows; 4 clerestory windows match those on the north. South-west porch with hipped roof and set back gabled buttresses. Moulded outer and inner doorways, the outer doorway with engaged shafts with a recessed panel of stone diapering above the arch. 2-leaf inner door with original ornamental strap hinges. 4-stage west tower with a stone spire with tall louvred lucarnes; projecting south-east 5-sided stair turret; set back buttresses rise to belfry stage. Richly-moulded cinquefoil-headed west doorway with original ironwork to the doors. Tall 2-light traceried window above that, 2 cusped roundels. Diaper stone work below belfry stage with a vessica window. 3-light Geometric Decorated traceried belfry window with marble panels below the sill, upper tier of belfry diapered. INTERIOR: Spectacular for its elaborate surface treatment and constructional polychromy. Arcades with cylindrical marble columns and double-chamfered arches. Arcade walls with septfoils in the spandrels, covered with a lattice of blind tracery over patterned brick and tiles. Nave and chancel roofs 5-sides with painted decoration; aisle roofs with stone ribs and paired rafters. Large 2-light traceried arches between chancel aisles and chancel. Chancel described by Goodhart-Rendel as "beyond all praise in its inspired strangeness" (quoted in Pevsner) with a marble dado and diapered walls; marble floor; aumbry and sedilia; painted ceiling. FITTINGS: Marble reredos integral with east wall decoration with a cinquefoil-headed recess for a metal crucifix. Lectern, candlesticks and altar cross 1871 by Butterfield. Chancel mosaics by Salviati. Metalwork includes 7 elaborate hanging lamps; processional cross. Nave fittings include an openwork pulpit of tiers of shafts and arcades and an extraordinary polychromatic marble font with tiers of arcading on shafts. Other fittings include a large cope chest. Various C19 wall monuments of interest at the east end of the north aisle; memorial brass to Anna Maria Hanbury, d.1877, to the designs of Butterfield. 1874 east window by Gibbs. Described in Pevsner as "one of Butterfield's most important churches". (Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1952-1989: P.848).

Listing NGR: SX9247665271

External Links

• Wikidata Q17528041

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