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St Andrew

St Andrew

Broadhembury

Devon

Parts of the nave probably C14 or earlier, C15 south aisle

Architectural Features

west tower, early C16 porch.

The church was consecrated in 1259 but the earliest visible fabric is the Decorated nave windows.

The remainder of the building is Perpendicular with a very grand west tower and pulpit window and a fine early C16 porch.

5-light C19 Bathstone east window, very large with a hoodmould with carved label stops.

Probably C14 nave

The easternmost window in the nave, lighting the pulpit, is unusually elaborate Perpendicular, 3- light with carved demi-figures projecting below the capitals of the mullions - the internal face has 3 projecting demi-angels with scrolls.

2-centred shallow-moulded door with carved spandrels into the south chancel chapel.

a C19 2-light square-headed C19 south window with cusped lights and a west doorframe with a Tudor arch, a hoodmould and a 1-light cusped window above.

Exceptionally fine, tall, 3-stage, battlemented west tower with set-back buttresses with set-offs, string courses, gargoyles below the battlements and octagonal corner pinnacles with crocketted finials.

The west face of the tower has a shallow-moulded Tudor arched west doorway with a hoodmould

The north face has a 2-light transomed, traceried belfry window and a 2-light uncusped window below, directly above the clock which has a stone frame with carved spandrels.

Unusually elaborate early C16 north porch with set-back buttresses and a coped parapet rising as a gable on the north side.

Moulded 4-centred outer doorway below 3 decayed statue niches with elaborate crocketted canopies and angel corbels holding shields and scrolls.

The outer doorway has a pair of fine late C17/early C18 gates, balustraded above fielded panels with ramped top rails crowned with wrought iron cresting.

The inner doorway has a Tudor arched frame with an order of vine-carving and well-carved spandrels

Holy water stoup in the porch and porch benches with probably C17 moulded timber tops.

4-bay south arcade with one bay to the chancel, the piers with corner shafts and carved foliage capitals, the western respond a C19 rebuilding, the arch into the chancel with additional mouldings because of the thickness of the chancel wall.

Open wagon roofs to nave and aisle, the aisle roof Perpendicular but with some renewal with shallow carved bosses and a vine-carved wall-plate.

C19 open wagon to the chancel with a crested vine-carved wall - plate.

The bottom stage of the tower has C15 or early C16 cross-joisted intersecting moulded ceiling beams.

C19 poppyhead choir stalls and a low timber chancel screen with a frieze of open tracery, this screen has a C19 panelled dado and an unusual, moveable balustraded communion rail, probably C17.

The nave has a C19 timber drum pulpit on a wineglass stem and an unsusually ornate Perpendicular font with an octagonal bowl carved with panels of blind tracery filled with carved shields and carved figures.

The bottom of the bowl is carved with tracery and set on a central, diagonally-placed stem carved with shields with 4 square-set corner shafts.

The gallery supporting the family pew at the west end of the south aisle is elaborately decorated: at the bottom ornamental iron grilles ventilate the heating system, orders of stone carving and blind stone quatrefoils above, and a gallery frontal of open tracery at the top with poppy-head finials matching the chancel screen.

Repainted Royal Arms over the door, early C19 nowy-head benefaction boards in tower.

Monuments In the chancel a C17 wall monument with some ancient colour

The south chancel chapel has a late C17 wall monument commemorating Francis Drewe, died 1675 with original marbling and gilding, Corinthian columns and a broken pediment.

Stained Glass An extremely interesting C19 sequence, especially a series of 4 by the Hardman Company on the south side, i.e. the easternmost and the next 3 windows.

On the north side the pulpit window is by Hardman, and the other stained glass window, with a memorial date of 1871, probably Powell.