Description

MERTON MERTON SS 5212 22/149 Church of All Saints 4.10.60 GV II*

Parish church. C15, restored in 1875 by Medley Fulford, screens and fittings the work of Harry Hems. Rubble walls small squared blocks to north aisle. Gable ended slate roof. Plan: nave, north aisle, south transept, west tower and south porch. The Norman font is evidence of the church's early origins but it is substantially a Perpendicular rebuilding although the difference in stonework between aisle and nave suggests a discrepancy in date. The south porch was described as "modern" in the mid C19 and was probably built or rebuilt in circa 1840. The restoration included renewing the roofs over the chancel and transept, replacing the fittings and probably building the vestry onto the east end of the north chapel. Exterior: Tall 3 stage west tower with set back buttresses, crenellations and obelisk pinnacles. 2-light mullion and transomed cinquefoiled belfry lights. The eastern belfry light is of an unusual form consisting of 2 small cusped lights below a larger opening with circles in squares to either side. Stairs run up north tower wall lit by very small quatrefoils. Very large 4-light C19 Decorated style window. C15 2- centred arch west doorway heavily moulded with arched hoodmould. North aisle windows are all restorations the western one in the Decorated style, the others square-headed with C14 style tracery. Between the left-hand and central windows is a projecting C19 rubble lateral stack with cylindrical shaft. C19 gabled vestry projecting from east end of aisle has a small 2-centred doorway on its west wall and a gable end chimney stack. The vestry blocks a window on the north face of the aisle leaving the hoodmould partly visible. The north aisle extends to the east end of the chancel and both have C19 Perpendicular style 4-light windows. On the south side the chancel projects slightly from the nave. Both have C19 2-light windows, a Decorated style one to the nave, Perpendicular to the chancel. The south transept has a restored 2- light window with cinquefoiled heads and simple Perpendicular traceried window on south wall. Gabled south porch with large 4-centred chamfered sandstone rubble arch. To the west of it is a 3-light restored Decorated style window. Interior: Porch has late C19 or early C20 boarded roof. C15 moulded 2-centre arched south doorway. Tall 5 bay granite arcade of Pevsner A-type piers with raised lozenges carved on capitals and 4-centred moulded arches. The internal walls are rendered apart from exposed stonework at the west end. The chancel is Decorated with stencilwork for which Medley Fulford was probably responsible and which is of an unusually early date for this type of decoration. A C19 timber chancel arch is similarly deorated. The wagon roofs were renewed in nave, chancel and transept but the old roof was restored in the aisle. The roofs over the nave and aisle are painted. Simple C19 benches. Elaborate late C19 marble reredos ornately coloured. Square Norman font with scalloped bottom edge to bowl which rests n the short circular stem. This stands on a square base which has a small stone on each corner, 2 or which are carved in the form of masks. Good carved Jacobean pyramidal font cover. Remains of C14 sepulchral arch in transept. In east window of north aisle are 4-lights of old glass depicting St Edmund the Confessor, St Margaret, St Christopher and St Anthony. Sources: Beatrix Cresswell - Notes on Devon Churches - Deanery of Torrington Devon C19 Churches project.

Listing NGR: SS5257412031

External Links

• Wikidata Q17536741

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Recommended Books

• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)