Betjeman’s Best British Churches. Richard Surman

      5m/8km N.W. of Barnstaple

      OS SS489370 GPS 51.1130N, 4.1598W

      Set in the largest village in Devon, now virtually a suburb of Barnstaple, St Brannock’s is a large barn-like church, not very prepossessing but well worth visiting. The Celtic missionary-saint Brannoc (who came across from South Wales) founded a minster here in the 6th century and is almost certainly buried under the high altar. The present church is mostly 13th-century, but with much later detail. Note the Norman S. tower with lead-covered broach spire. The remarkably wide nave is covered by a fine roof enriched with 15th-century bosses, including one of a sow feeding her litter. The N. transept gallery was the private pew of the Snow family.

      BRENTOR † St Michael

      5m/8km N. of Tavistock

      OS SX470804 GPS 50.6033N, 4.1623W

      A wonderful site, perched on the very summit of an extinct volcanic cone, 1,100 feet above the sea, St Michael’s has a lonely and remote setting, with views over half of Devon and Cornwall. The first church was founded here c. 1140 by the Gifford family, but most is 14th century and heavily restored by the Victorians.

      BRIDFORD † St Thomas à Becket

      4m/6km E. of Moretonhampstead

      OS SX816863 GPS 50.6650N, 3.6766W

      St Thomas à Becket is a granite Perpendicular church set in a granite village with Dartmoor in its views to the west. There is some late-medieval glass, carved stalls and bench-ends, wagon roofs and other medieval woodwork. Best of all is the splendid rood screen, made about 1530, which retains much of its soft, ancient colouring.

      BUCKLAND-IN-THE-MOOR † St Peter

      3m/4km N.W. of Ashburton

      OS SX720731 GPS 50.5440N, 3.8072W

      In a romantic moorland setting in the National Park, St Peter’s is mostly 15th-century granite, with a carved Norman font and crude early 16th-century paintings. The 14th-century traceried screen is particularly fine, despite Fellowes Fynne’s intrusive restoration: an interesting if unnecessary jigsaw of the old and new.

      BURRINGTON † Holy Trinity

      4m/6km N.W. of Chulmleigh

       OS SS637166 GPS 50.9332N, 3.9400W

      Largely 15th-century Perpendicular with good woodwork, Holy Trinity was restored in 1884. The tower is earlier: 13th- to 14th-century with a 15th-century top stage. Inside is a well-preserved screen with carved pomegranates and inverted Green Men, and a traceried S. door. The N. and S. ceilings have Tudor angels and bosses.

      CADELEIGH † St Bartholomew

      4m/6km S.W. of Tiverton

       OS SS914079 GPS 50.8605N, 3.5444W

      Well-set with good views. The church is mainly 15th-century, but the inside walls are decorated with plaster panels from the mid-18th century, when the box pews were fitted. In the N. aisle is a fine canopied altar tomb to Sir Simon and Lady Catherine Leach.

      CHERITON BISHOP † St Mary

      6m/10km S.W. of Crediton

       OS SX773935 GPS 50.7287N, 3.7395W

      Set in a tight fold between hills, the church has a good collection of fittings: a Norman font, 16th-century pulpit, coloured rood screen, bench-ends and a rare Elizabethan painted Royal Arms over the S. door.

      CHULMLEIGH † St Mary Magdalene

      8m/12km S. of South Molton

       OS SS686141 GPS 50.9119N, 3.8693W

      Standing high above the River Dart, this church was collegiate from the 13th century, but its fabric dates mainly from the 15th century now. It has a tall W. tower and a long and notably complete rood screen. The chancel tiles and fittings are by Gould, 1879–81, all set off with Hardman glass.

      COLDRIDGE † St Matthew

      20m/32km N.W. of Exeter

       OS SS698076 GPS 50.8537N, 3.8504W

      Both church and village are set on the summit of a high ridge, with views across to Dartmoor. Some Norman work, but mostly late 15th- to early 16th-century. Highly interesting contents include medieval screens (flamboyant work in the parclose screen as at Colebrooke), a fine medieval carved pulpit, late medieval bench-ends, tiles, glass, wagon-roofs with carved bosses, and the table-tomb of Sir John Evans, who gave many of the fittings in 1511–12.

      COLEBROOKE † St Andrew

      5m/8km W. of Crediton

      OS SS769000 GPS 50.7867N, 3.7463W

      The 14th-century church, enlarged in the 15th, stands boldly by itself. It has a good W. tower. The unusual, crudely carved bench-ends date from the late 15th century, as do the fine screens – a rood with linenfold panelling, and screens to the Copelstone Chapel with an unusual Curvilinear design.

      COMBE MARTIN † St Peter

      4m/7km E. of Ilfracombe

      OS SS586463 GPS 51.1984N, 4.0248W

      St Peter’s is set in a rather dull village but is an unusual and pleasing example of the old and new. The rood screen, decorated with painted saints, has contemporary carved saints in the niches. The loft is by Herbert Read, 1911, the reredos by Doris Downing, 1972, and the rood figures above the screen by Colin Shewring are inspired by an illustration from the Book of Hours.

      CORNWORTHY † St Peter

      4m/6km S.E. of Totnes

       OS SX829555 GPS 50.3881N, 3.6479W

      This is a 15th-century building in a Dartside village, with a Norman font and much-restored medieval screen. Most of the rest of the interior dates from 1788, with later modifications, including the box pews, a canopied pulpit, altarpiece, clear glass and altered window tracery. Delightful repose everywhere, and quite unharmed by Victorian meddlers.

      CREDITON: HOLY CROSS – at ease in the afternoon sunlight, the recumbent figure of Sir John Sully on his late 14th-century tomb

      CREDITON † Holy Cross

      8m/12km N.W. of Exeter

       OS SS836002 GPS 50.7897N, 3.6522W

      A splendid collegiate church in a sleepy little town, Holy Cross is the successor to a Saxon minster and cathedral. Built of red sandstone, it has a Norman central tower incongruously set within a mainly 15th-century Perpendicular fabric. The clerestory is very beautiful; unusual even in good Devon churches. The unfortunate memorial by Caroe above the chancel arch to Sir Redvers Buller, who was vastly admired by Devonians if not by the outside world, is described by the writer Simon Jenkins as a ‘mix of Perpendicular and Pre-Raphaelite in what could be the backdrop for an Arthurian romance’. Other examples of Gothic revivalism are here too. Original Gothic is represented in the sedilia, carved figures in the vaulting and traces of early paintwork. There are tombs for Sir John Sully, 1387, Sir William Peryam, 1604, and John Tuckfield, 1630.

      CRUWYS MORCHARD † Holy Cross

      5m/8km W. of Tiverton

       OS SS874121 GPS 50.8980N, 3.6021W

      Highly ‘atmospherick’, for it stands beside the ancient house of the Cruwys family who have lived there since the 12th century. Mostly 14th-century and early 16th, the interior is nevertheless quite Georgian in feeling, all done after the great fire of 1689, with plastered