Description

COMBE RALEIGH COMBE RALEIGH SY 10 SE

6/119 Church of St Nicholas 22.2.55

GV II*

Parish church. Largely C15 with substantial C19 restoration, date of 1700 on the gable. Flint rubble with Bathstone and Beerstone dressings; slate roofs, gabled at ends. Plan: Nave, chancel, west tower; 4-bay north arcade plus 2 bays to the chancel (possibly the Denys chantry (q.v. The Chantry); south porch, south-east vestry. Similarities between mouldings of the arcade, tower arch and chancel arch suggests a major phase of rebuilding in the C15. Exterior: Chancel with the date of 1700 in gable and the initials EF. 4-light probably C19 east window with a depressed arch and tracery, 2-light south window with a hoodmould and trefoil-headed lights. The nave has a large square-headed probably C16 4-light window with cinquefoil-headed lights and a buttress with set-offs. The south east vestry is gabled with a door on the east side, the shaft of the stack has been dismantled. South-west porch with a 2-light window on the east return and a one-light window on the west return; wide segmental-arched outer doorway with a hoodmould, stone-topped benches, a medieval ceiled wagon roof and a moulded inner doorway with a 3-centred arched head. C19 or C20 3-light window to the west of the porch. The north aisle has 3-light traceried west and east windows, and 4 4-light square-headed probably C16 windows with cusped lights, 1 buttress with set-offs and a rectangular stair turret with a 2-light square-headed window to the right of the turret. Moulded doorframe to the priest's door to the left of the turret. 2 stage battlemented tower with a south-east stair turret rising above the tower. The west face has a moulded west doorway with a hoodmould, a plank door, a 3-light west window with C19 tracery; 2-light cusped belfry opening with trefoil-headed lights and relieving arch, similar belfry opening on north face. The east and south faces have 1-light belfry openings, the east face has a mid C19 clock face to a flat bed clock, the frame signed G. Wadham of Bath. Interior: Plastered walls, except for the window jambs; probably C15 Beerstone chancel arch with a hollow-chamfered moulding and capitals only to the engaged shafts; C15 moulded tower arch carried on boldy-carved corbels with variants of the green man. 4-bay north aisle, the piers of the same section as the chancel arch, which abuts the arcade rather awkwardly; 2 lower bays to the chancel. Late C19 or C20 ceiled wagon to the nave, medieval ceiled wagon to the aisle and north chancel chapel; C19 2-bay arch-braced chancel roof. Beerstone doorframes, rebated for a door, to the rood loft stair turret. The sanctuary has a trefoil-headed piscina and a probably C17 communion rail with thick turned balusters, returning along the north side. Probably re-cut medieval font with an octagonal bowl with quatrefoils and boldy-carved foilage below the bowl. C19 or early C20 pulpit in a C17 manner; C19 choir stalls and nave benches. The nave and aisle floor are paved with probably early C19 red and black tiles with some C17 ledger stones set in it. Stained Glass: East window probably by Drake of Exeter memorial date 1885. 1848 west window of the aisle commemorates members of the Band family (q.v. Worfield House), probably by Beer of Exeter with quarries and diagonally-set texts. The tower window and westernmost window of the nave have brighly-coloured non-pictorial glass from the circa 1830s. Memorials: Series of C18, C19 and C20 wall plaques, mostly white marble, in the nave. The north chancel chapel has a wall monument to James Bernard, Lord of the Manor, died 1823, and others of the family and a brass to William Henry Bernard, died 1872.

Listing NGR: ST1585802332

External Links

• Wikidata Q17547501

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