More Devon churches

Following the visit to Exeter Cathedral, the report of which ended at reference 1, there were more church visits, including one lifetime first.

St. Eustachius, Tavistock. Notable on this occasion for its fine array of cylindrical barrel (or perhaps waggon) vaults, picked out with a sparse rectangular array of dark brown beams, probably not structural. A sort of roof of which one sees a good deal in Devon. East end snapped above.

St. Andrew's, Ashburton. More barrel vaults, mostly stripped down to the rafters, thus demonstrating that the barrel vault is just an eye pleasing bit of decoration nailed onto the rafters of the same sort of close boarded, pitched roof as you might find in a house. Or the close boarded hipped roof of our house here in Epsom, with the close boarding serving in our case, both to provide a bit of thermal insulation and to keep out the various detritus & live stock which might otherwise drift in under the tiles from the outside world. There were also some flat roofs to the aisles, similarly close boarded, with the visible rafters enlivened by large, carved and painted bosses where they crossed. And outside, a fine wellingtonia, a fine cedar and a handsome yew avenue to the front door. Not to mention what looked like a north facing, first floor artist's studio overlooking the church yard. A recent conversion by the looks of it and a neat encapsulation of Ashburton past and present.

The lifetime first, St. Mary the Virgin, Holne. Still more vaults, but more notable for its ancient screen between the nave and the chancel and its ancient pulpit, this last carved from a section of the trunk of an oak tree. Maybe a five foot section. Most unusual, the ticket said, to have a pulpit carved from a single piece of timber in this way. The screen was decorated with ancient paintings, somehow surviving the Puritan onslaught of the seventeenth century. Probably the screen and pulpit which catapult the church to its grade one listing.

Notable also for the community shop and tea room across the way. Where by community, I mean put up and run by voluntary effort. And certainly not for profit.

I associate now to the hammer bean roofs of East Anglia and to the roof of the Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace. Here, instead of barrel or any other kind of vaulting, the complexity of the interior roof joinery takes the eye and brain away from the close boarding above. The result is an interior space, cut off from the outside world and its possibly inclement weather.

Buckfast Abbey, Buckfast. A rather different kettle of fish altogether, almost a new build. At least, built by monks from France, via Ireland, at around the start of the twentieth century, just about a thousand years after the first, Saxon, foundation. This first foundation being, at one point, supported by around 10,000 acres, almost enough to keep a decent baron going, mostly gobbled up by a hungry Henry VIII. An impressive building, with the inside now clear of scaffolding, although a little cold, despite the large, annular chandelier copied from the 12th century original at Aachen, known as the Barbarossa chandelier or the Barbarossaleuchter to its locals. Fine gardens outside, handsome cafeteria and a range of other buildings supporting conferences and other activities. Not least the manufacture of the famous Buckfast Tonic Wine; good stuff for keeping one going through a night of prayers.

Reference 1: http://www.psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/exeter-cathedral-4.html.