Description

TORQUAY

SX9163 ST LUKE'S ROAD
885-1/17/231 (West side)
14/02/72 Parish Church of St Luke
(Formerly Listed as:
ST LUKE'S ROAD
Church of St Luke)

GV II*

Parish church. 1863, to the designs of A Blomfield;
restoration after fire damage in 1964. Local grey uncoursed
limestone rubble; freestone dressings, some banded with
limestone; slate roofs. Geometric Decorated style.
PLAN: Nave; chancel with polygonal apse; 5-bay north and south
aisles; north-west tower incorporating porch; west end
narthex; east end church hall at right-angles to nave and
linked to main body of church.
EXTERIOR: Robust and unconventional, particularly the west
end. 2-light west window to nave with traceried roundel above
and common hoodmould. West end narthex above battered basement
level has 2-light windows piercing an arcade on columns with
carved capitals. Narthex entered via steps and porch on south
side or via tower on north side.
3-stage tower with octagonal belfry stage and stone spire with
lucarnes.
North side of tower has steps up to open arcaded 4-sided porch
with pyramidal slate roof, the arcade with cylindrical columns
and carved capitals; paired plank doors. North and south
aisles with 5 gabled bays, the north aisle (show front) with
buttresses supporting detached columns with carved capitals
and carved symbols of the evangelists.
North-east gabled porch with moulded 2-centred arched doorway
with a carved niche in the gable.
Polygonal east end with tall one-light windows with traceried
heads. A link block containing a trefoil-headed doorway at the
north-east gives access to the gable-ended hall which has a
stack with stone shaft at the south end and a ribbon of 6
stone mullioned windows below a sexafoil roundel with common
voussoirs.
INTERIOR: Good example of late C19 enriched interior, very
complete although some of the painted decoration was restored
after the 1964 fire. Moulded chancel arch on short columns
with carved angel corbels and stiff-leaf capitals. 5-bay
arcade with unusual short cast-iron columns on deep plinths.
The columns have bead-moulded capitals and double-chamfered
arches. 6-bay ceiled, keeled wagon roof to nave with moulded
ribs springing from corbels. Aisle roofed in bays, each a
keeled, ceiled wagon with chamfered ribs. Keeled ceiled wagon
roof to chancel with moulded ribs forming panels, all lavishly
painted in 1870 by Heaton Butler and Bayne (Pevsner).
Chancel and sanctuary walls entirely covered with stencil and
freehand paintings with remains of (repaired) sgraffito with
mosaic roundels. Gabled stone reredos with carved scene in
deep relief of the Last Supper.
Good floor tiling; sedilia; brass and wrought upper sanctuary
rail; local marble chancel screen with blind white Italian
marble arcading with brass rails and gates. Alabaster and
local marble drum pulpit with pierced traceried openings. The
nave fittings include a good High Victorian font on raised
marble paving. Square font with corner shafts, the stone
inlaid with marble with carved symbols in roundels. West end
gallery on slender iron columns with a stout timber front with
diagonal bracing.
STAINED GLASS includes a fine Heaton Butler and Bayne west
window. Sanctuary windows said to be by same firm (Pevsner).
Small window by Kempe firm in the narthex.
(Brooks C: Devon Nineteenth Century Churches Project Archive:
48 Park St. Crediton; Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon:
London: 1952-1989: P.849).

Listing NGR: SX9130363948

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17550048

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

• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)