Parish Church of St Mary

Details

PAIGNTON

SX86SE BLAGDON ROAD, Collaton St Mary 1947-1/2/171 (North East side) 13/03/51 Parish Church of St Mary

GV II*

Parish church. Foundation stone laid 21 September 1864; consecration 24 March 1866. Designed by JW Rowell of Newton Abbot for the Rev. John Roughton Hogg of Blagdon as a memorial to Hogg's daughter, Mary, who died in 1864 aged 17. Contractor Harvey of Torquay; carved work by Mr Jackman of Teignmouth. Early Decorated Gothic Revival style. MATERIALS: Local red snecked breccia on a local grey limestone plinth, Bathstone dressings; natural slate roof laid in bands of grey and purple; crested ridge tiles; cast-iron rainwater goods. PLAN: 4-bay nave; 2-bay chancel; SW tower with porch adjoining E wall; vestry and organ chamber to N side of chancel. EXTERIOR: Very unaltered. Nave and chancel with buttresses with coped set-offs; window arches with white and cream stone banded voussoirs and hoodmoulds with carved label stops. Show front on S side, high above the road. Chancel lower than nave which has a stone cross on the east gable. Chancel with angle buttresses; moulded string on east wall rises to sill of 3-light traceried east window; trefoil window in gable. S side of chancel with 2 trefoil-headed one-light windows. Lean-to vestry-cum-organ chamber on N side has E window of 2 shouldered lights set in a chamfered, arched blind recess. N side has shouldered priest's door flanked by shouldered windows. Nave gutters carried on moulded timber brackets. 2-light plate-traceried nave windows with pointed quatrefoil in the head. W end of nave, flush with W wall of tower, has tall central buttress flanked by 2-light windows, moulded string and angle buttress at NW corner. Traceried roundel window with banded stone frame in gable. 3-stage tower with internal NE stair; parapet pierced with quatrefoils; moulded string interrupted by angle buttresses with coped gables, which change to clasping buttresses at belfry stage and terminate in tall pyramidal pinnacles with crocketed finials. W face of tower has small shouldered doorway below one-light window; Bathstone band above with 2 blind quatrefoils. Belfry stage is recessed between buttresses with a corbelled cornice above; 2 belfry lancets, the louvres with scalloped lead drips. S face of tower similar but stone band incorporates an 1866 clock-face under a gabled, cusped hood carried carved corbels. Deep lean-to porch adjoins E side of tower. Moulded outer doorway with detached shafts with bell capitals. Row of 4 small lancet windows on E side of porch, each with stone shafts and a continuous hoodmould. INTERIOR of porch has a W wall recess with long bench with wooden seat; hollow-chamfered inner doorway with text on tin above. INTERIOR: Remarkably well-preserved set of 1860s fittings and decoration. Plastered walls; double-chamfered red and white stone banded chancel arch carried on short polished limestone shafts with stiff-leaf capitals and naturalistic carved corbels. 4-bay stout nave roof with intermediate trusses; principals and purlins carried on moulded stone corbels. Arch-braced trusses with cranked collars below scissor braces, the arch braces treated like jointed crucks. 2-bay chancel roof with 2 intermediate trusses: main truss with cusped braces below a collar with short curved braces above. Trusses carried on flower-carved corbels; purlins on moulded corbels. Nave includes a small door on the S side into the tower and above it, a blind triple arcade with painted inscription. Grand marble font on freestone steps to S side of nave, given by Miss Durant of Sharpham (qv Ashprington parish) carved by Earp to the designs of Bentley. Square bowl on polished marble column with corner shafts. Bowl with chamfered corners decorated with good figures of seated saints, mosaics on sides include symbolds of the evangelists. Steps incorporate encaustic tiles with inscription and date of 1865. Elaborate openwork timber font cover with buttresses and pyramidal pinnacle; original lifting mechanism survives with probably original polychromatic painting to the weight. Simple Portland stone pulpit consisting of an obtuse angled stone screen with a cornice, the centre broken forward and taller, flanked by marble shafts. Set of simple open benches to nave with Y-shaped ends. 2 probably 1860s corona lucis in the nave are complete with probably original polychromatic painting and texts. Chancel includes double-chamfered arch to organ chamber; trefoil-headed priest's door on N side and shouldered aumbry with polished marble shafts. Elaborate, large, stone reredos, designed by Bentley and carved by Earp, sculpture by Phyffers. Reredos commemorating Rev. Hogg has brattished cornice and central sculptured section flanked by tall, slender buttresses with elaborate surface carving. Sculpture depicts the Last Supper. 2 flanking bays across east wall and one each to the N and S returns have trefoil-headed arcading over marble herringbone blocks. Bays on east wall divided by carved angels on marble shafts. Sanctuary rail with painted cast-iron standards and pretty wrought- and cast-iron curly leaf spandrels. Choir stalls also of the 1860s with poppy-head finials and book rest with painted cast and wrought-iron standards. Painted text on tin on S wall of chancel. Stained glass includes E and 2 S chancel windows designed by Bentley and executed by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake. HISTORY: Hogg owned the Blagdon estate in Paignton. Group value with school, lych gate and rectory, all also of the 1860s and promoted by Hogg. Pevsner comments on the "evocative Victorian group of small village church, school and rectory". The church, although modest in scale, is remarkably complete with very few post 1860's additions and alterations. The high quality font and reredos are outstanding; the ironwork, with extensive survival of original colour, is a rare and precious survival. (Buildings of England: Pevsner N and Cherry B: Devon: London: 1952-1989: 839; Collaton St Mary Parish Magazine: 1916-).

Listing NGR: SX8642760176

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

383767

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Devon, (1989), 839

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.