Description

SX 8663 MARLDON

13/68 Church of St John the
Baptist
9.2.61

GV I

Parish church. Circa 1400 west tower, remainder rebuilt circa 1450 with chapel
of circa 1520. Chancel restored 1874. Dressed stone with freestone dressings.
Slate and lead roofs. Nave and chancel in one with large C19 five-light
Perpendicular east window. North and south aisles, south aisle extended to east
in circa 1520 by John Gilbert to form the Compton Chapel. Embattled parapets
and buttresses with set-offs rising to pinnacles with a batter, like obelisks.
Rood stair turret on north side with battlements. Large four-light Perpendicu-
lar traceried north and south windows appear to be all C19 replacements except
for two large granite Perpendicular windows at east end of south aisle, and a
smaller three-light Perpendicular window at the east end of south side of the
south aisle (Compton Chapel). South doorway has quatrefoil spandrels. Two-
storey porch also with battlements and finials and diagonal buttresses with
set-offs. The porch is vaulted inside with moulded ribs and tiercerons and
carved bosses with shields, foliage and rosettes. Tall unbuttressed west tower
with slight batter, in three stages and with battlement and gargoyles and
pinnacles over the corners only. Three-light bell openings with straight heads
and labels. Polygonal stair turret on south side. C19 five-light west window
with intersecting tracery and plain chamfered west doorway with hood mould.
Interior: C15 five bay north and south arcades, the south arcade extended circa
1520 with two narrow bays to chancel chapel (Compton Chapel). Two-centred
arcade arches on piers with four shafts with wavy moulding between, and leaf-
frieze capitals. C19 boarded wagon roof. North and south aisles have flat
roofs with moulded chamfered beams supported on stone corbels. Reset in south
chancel chapel, probably from chancel, an earlier piscina with cusped ogee arch
with quatrefoils in the spandrels and a shelf. Another larger piscina in the
south aisle. In east bay of each arcade a canopied cenotaph to Otho Gilbert
1492 and his wife in the south one, and a small recumbent effigy in armour in
the other. C15 octagonal font with panels containing quatrefoils and shields.
Small Royal Arms of William IV under the tower. Fragments of the stone screen
in room over the porch. Remainder of furnishings C19 and C20. Monuments: Wall
monument to Ann Gilbert 1775. Some C17, C18 and C19 in incised tombstones.
Reference: John Stabb, Some Old Devon Churches, Volume II, page 118 and 119.
R F Cresswell, Notes on Devon Churches, Deanery of Ipplepen, pp.193 to 211.

Listing NGR: SX8662663575

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17527173

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

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  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
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  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)