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the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Nativity Of The Blessed Virgin Mary

Lympstone

Devon

The church was being rebuilt in 1329 when the dedication was postponed

Architectural Features

dedicated by Bishop Stafford in 1409 when described as "de novo constructam".

If normal practice was followed the tower would have been the last part of the church to be rebuilt, and it shares some striking similarities with that at nearby Woodbury which can be confidently dated to 1407-9.

gargoyles to parapet stringcourse.

Interior: 5-bay arcades, that to north supposed to be medieval, but entirely re-cut in the 1860s

Font: a Norman bowl with an unusual moulding (a hybrid cable-imbricated) much damaged and no longer in use.

Monuments: a good, unsigned mural monument now in tower (north wall), to Nicholas Lee, mayor of Exeter, d. 1759, memorial inscription with cornice and pediment, apron with putti, portrait bust above.

A memorial slab on the grave of a member of the Drake family, distantly related to Sir Francis Drake, who lived in Lympstone in the 17th century

White marble memorial wall slab, north aisle, north wall to Francis Drake, d. 1722.

A memorial slab on the grave of a member of the Drake family, distantly related to Sir Francis Drake, who lived in Lympstone in the 17th century

© David Smith

Glass: the church possesses a good and varied set of C19 glass, by several makers and ranging in date from the 1840s to the early C20.

south aisle south, Birch memorial, by Jennings, 1900

north aisle, north, Marshall memorial, 1884

north aisle, west, Macdonald memorial (Ascension)