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Broadclyst Devon

Church of St John the Baptist, Broadclyst Devon

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the manor was burned down by Danish invaders in 1001

The manor was held by the Crown at the 1086 Domesday Survey, but was granted by Henry I. to the Novant family, from whom it passed to the Chudleigh, Arundell, Morice, and later the Aclands

The present church is mainly late 15c but retains some important 14c work. It is believed to have been erected during the episcopate of Edmund Stafford, 1395-1419, but the upper part of the tower was not completed until the reign of Henry VIll which has heraldic panels showing the arms of the king and the Chudleigh family at the top

 

It consists of a four stage west tower with 8 bells, nave and chancel with north and south aisles & south porch.

The nave is separated from the aisles by 6 arches on each side, the pillars having carved capitals, and the outer mouldings of the arches, which are studded with carving, spring from angels holding shields in the north aisle flic.kr/p/9yjYg7 and in the south aisle (with the exception of two at the east end) they spring from grotesque heads. flic.kr/p/9ygnJa The capitals have varied foliage designs. However one dated capital - 1576, ( 3rd south from west) - is markedly different from the others with masked faces, foliage and looped ropework.

www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/4F5354Mb26

There is a priest's door and remains of a piscina in the chancel,

The north aisle east window is set in 14c stonework, the contemporary chancel sedilia also survives

 

Under an ornate carved canopy, flic.kr/p/xYcYNK lies the effigy of possibly Sir Roger de Nonant dc1330 flic.kr/p/xYdbVR whose family held the manor from the reign of Henry I. to that of Edward III (1100 - 1377)

In the north aisle chapel lies Sir John Ackland / Acland, with his 2 wives kneeling at each corner, on the tomb he built c 1613 before he died in 1620 flic.kr/p/xSBkiC

In the south aisle chapel is another large monument again built in the lifetime of the commemorated , Edward Drew 1598, Recorder of Exeter and London, sergeant-at-law, and his wife Bridget FitzWilliam flic.kr/p/xU8FPX

On the chancel north wall kneel Henry Burroughs 1605 & wife Elizabeth Reynell - flic.kr/p/xAZHwG Henry was the founder of Burrough's Almshouses in the village www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/8m9Dm4dAeB

 

The building was substantially restored in 1833-4 by Wills and again in 1882 by Edward Ashworth. (The castellated south porch dates to the 1834 restoration as are the roofs of the nave & chancel )

 

Stained glass placed in 1926 in the north aisle east window is to the memory of Ellen Acland who was killed in a road accident in 1924 aged 11 www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/889UN10AYz - the thatched bus shelter was also erected to her memory by her parents www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/64K2t8Qt93

 

Copyright Peter Michel www.google.co.uk/search?q=broadclyst+church+devon+&so...

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Uploaded on April 21, 2023