SSTSSTTT ANDREW’SAANDREW’SANNDDRREEWW’’SS CHURCHCCHURCHCHHUURRCCHH CCULLOMPTONCCULLOMPTONUULLLLOOMMPPTTOONN ... 3 ST ANDREW’S CHURCH ways of pronouncing it. The full story is set out in The Town on the Culm (1985). CULLOMPTON In fact, just as Culm Davey was originally Coombe Davey and had nothing to St Andrew’s Church is a history lesson. do with the river Culm, Cullompton Start in front of the pulpit between the was Colehampton, the town on the nave and north aisle and look at the War Colebrook. Memorial window. The main fi gures are King Alfred is there because Columtune St Columba, St Andrew, the Virgin Mary fi rst appears in his will in 872 AD, in and King Alfred. which he le his lands here to his son St Columba is there because Vicar Ethelward. Watkins Grubb (1937-46), who wrote St Mary is there because the church a massive history of Cullompton was once dedicated to her. The change (unpublished), thought that St Columba to St Andrew took place in the fi eenth visited this area and gave his name to century when the present church was the river and the town. This has been a built. There is no documentary evidence source of controversy over the centuries. to show when the present building was There are 40 diff erent ways of spelling erected, but the nave, with its glorious the name of the town and two diff erent wagon roof, and the north and south

The NaveThe looking South WestAisle seenshowing through Jacobean the Nave Gallery Arcades and Organ The South Aisle and Lane TheAisle Nave beyond looking seen East through the Nave Arcades

This page has kindly been sponsored by 01884 839556 This page has kindly been sponsored by 01884 32218 4 ...... 5 aisles, belong to that century, and the King’s head on the westernmost pillar between the nave and north aisle may be that of Henry IV. The rich colours of the wagon roof and the screen were once matched by mediaeval wall pain ngs in distemper. In the north aisle there was a fi gure of St Christopher, nine feet high, with the Christchild on his shoulder, fi shes and a mermaid at his feet, and holding a green twisted palm staff . There were other fi gures of an equally gigan c size, including St Michael weighing departed spirits, and a demoniacal horned head grinning between the cords of a weighing scale. The wall pain ngs were presumably covered over at the Reforma on. They Edward Ashworth’s impression of the were uncovered for the fi rst me in 1799 wall painƟ ng of St Christopher when the church was being repaired. before it was covered up in 1850 In the St James’s; Chronicle or BriƟ sh in 1826, Honiton Church in 1835, and the Evening Post for 1 January 1801 there is a markets at Hungerford, Covent Garden, le er to the printer from a correspondent Gravesend, Tavistock and Exeter in Exeter. ‘Sir, I accidentally took a walk last year to Collumpton, a large town The murals were covered over again at about twelve miles from this place: it the insistence of the vicar (John Veryard was just at the me that the church Bru on, vicar 1777-1814), who thought was undergoing a repair; and being that they would distract too much of the told that the workmen had discovered a en on of the congrega on. They were some pain ngs, curiosity led me to look uncovered a second me during the at them’. There is a shorter account in church restora on of 1849-50; see Pages a le er to the Gentleman’s Magazine, from the Past (1986) pp 22-23. Drawings vol. 70 (1800), p.1131. The murals were were made by Edward Ashworth, the remembered by Charles Fowler (1792- diocesan architect, and they were 1867), one of the most dis nguished reproduced in colour in P C Delegarde’s people to be born in Cullompton. He was account of the church in theTransacƟ ons a founder member of the Royal Ins tute of the Diocesan Architectural Society, vol. of Bri sh Architects, and the architect 3 (1849), p52. The murals were covered The Nave looking East showing rood screen and sanctuary beyond responsible for the Dart bridge at Totnes up again in 1850, this me permanently.

This page has kindly been sponsored by Cullompton Venue 01884 32265 This page has kindly been sponsored by Estate Agents 01884 33333 6 ...... 7 There was a move to restore them a er the Second World War, but in 1947 Professor Tristram, of the Royal College of Art, reported that ‘the restora on of the mural pain ngs is quite out of the ques on’. The best murals were in the eastern half of the north aisle. Sit down in one of the pews and look at the roof and study carefully the bosses where the roof beams cross. In the western half of the north aisle and elsewhere in the church the roof bosses are nearly all composed of foliage and the paint is dull and badly fade. At the East end of this aisle, on both sides of the rood screen, the colours are An angel holding cloth shears one of more vivid and the roof bosses are much the corbels in the Lane Aisle more interes ng and varied. Some of the paint has faded more in some cases the bosses are composed of four faces, than in others, and the height and bad joined at the top of the head and looking light do not help. In each case the design outwards. There are nine like this, though is almost exactly the same: there is one they are not all easy to iden fy because face with a full black beard, one face with

The Lane Aisle One of the four-faced bosses in theNorth Aisle http://cullomptontownteam. This page has kindly been sponsored by wordpress.com/ This page has kindly been sponsored by 01884 33405 8 ...... 9 a heavy black handlebar moustache, the four faces on the bosses may belong and two faces without hair, either to them. His son William married Dorothy cleanshaven or ladies. There is a second of Trowbridge, whose coat of arms was a series of bosses with a diff erent design. bridge with two arches, as you can see Depending on which way up you look at on the parclose screen between the it, you may think that it is a comb or a set north aisle and the chancel. One of the of candles. It is in fact a bridge with two hairless faces may belong to her. The arches. In a third series of bosses the soccer player on the remaining bosses design looks rather like a soccer player. may in fact represent one of the angels on the parclose screen. On the fl oor, just west of the screen and now partly covered by the new It is clear at any rate that this is the Moore carpet round the organ, is a memorial family aisle, and the special decora ons in stone. Round the edge of it there is it, the roof bosses and the wall pain ngs, an inscrip on. It is in La n and heavily must have been paid for by them. abbreviated. It says: ‘Here lies William Beneath the mural of St Christopher, More and Maurice More, his brother, according to Edward Ashworth, there and also Dorothy, wife of the aforesaid was an axe and the inscrip on Orate pro William and the children of William and bono statu Johis Browke et Johna uxoris Dorothy; William died on 6 December eius. Nothing is known of John Browke. Detail of the carved heraldic shields of the Moore Family on the parclose screen 1518; may the Lord have mercy of their Delegarde deduced from the axe that he souls. Amen’. was a butcher. That seems implausible. us it is not possible to say more than ‘In honour of God and his Blessed mother It is unlikely that a butcher would have that. Mary Remeb the soulis of John Lane w This is Moores’ Aisle. Twenty genera ons had the desire, or the wealth, to donate a pat nst & ave meri and the sawle of of the Moore family lived at Moorehays The fi rst major addi on to the church Thomsyn his wiff e to have in memory a mural, or that he would have been was Lane’s Aisle, which was built on the on the Bradfi eld road un l George Moore allowed to do so by the church authori es with all other ther chyldren & frendis died in 1711, leaving no male heirs, and south side in 1526-1529. You can see the of youre awne chyryty which were or the Moore family. It must have been symbols of John Lane’s trade all over his his daughter married John Blackmore of donated by a wealthy local benefactor, founders of this Chapell & here lyeth in Sheldon. Sir John Moore, Recorder of aisle, inside and outside: the tucker’s Sepulther The yere of ower Lorde God a either a member of the Moore family or shears and handles, and the ships on the Exeter, who died on 7 January 1510, is someone married to a Moore daughter. thousant fi ve hundrith syx and twynth buried on the other side of the screen. external bu resses. He was a successful God of his grace on ther boyth sawles to The axe may mean that he was an army interna onal cloth merchant (see Carus- He was survived by four of his sons, and offi cer. On the informa on available to have mercy and fi nally bring them to the Wilson in Mediaeval Archaeology, vol.I eternall glory. Amen for Chryty’. (1957) pp 104-117). With its heavy fan vaul ng the aisle is reminiscent of the Lane and his wife were buried inside at Dorset Aisle at O ery St Mary or John the east end of the aisle. The inscrip on, Greenway’s chapel at St Peter’s, Tiverton, unfortunately partly covered by a seat, and indeed some of the carvings are runs as follows: nearly or wholly iden cal with those at Tiverton. Round the outside below ‘Hic jacet Johs Lane Mctor huis qu capelle the windows, there is the following fundator cum Thomasia uxore ejus q dict inscrip on, now largely illegible: Johes obiit xvo die Februarii anno dni The Golgotha millo CCCCCXXVIII’ This page has kindly been co-sponsored by Cafe Calm ... and Cullompton Foot Care This page has kindly been sponsored by 01392 881313 10 ...... 11 ‘Here lies John Lane, merchant and At the west end of Lane’s Aisle you can founder of this chapel, with Thomasina see two massive pieces of oak, carved to his wife, which said John died on 15 represent rocks covered with skulls and February 1528’ (1529, according to our bones. This is the Golgotha. You can see modern calendar). the socket for the cross and the pla orms for Mary and John. It originally stood The fan vaul ng does not fi t the windows on top of the screen and was probably and external bu resses. There may have removed in the me of Edward VI, at the been a change of plan during the course same me as the mural pain ngs were of building, from a fl at wooden roof as fi rst covered over. It was already at the in the north and south aisles, to the west end of the church in 1635, where elaborate fan vaul ng. It was at about it was seen by Sir William Pole. The the same period that the Moores were great west tower was added in 1545- embellishing their aisle on the other side 1549. From the ground to the parapet of the church with wall pain ngs and it measures 100 feet, and the pinnacles special roof bosses, and it may be that are nearly 20 feet higher. On the west there was rivalry between the two sides, face are the remains of a Crucifi xion. The a rivalry between old, landed wealth and fi gure of Christ has been destroyed, and new, trading wealth, and John Lane was the saints at its foot are headless. On determined to outdo them. Humphrey either side of the west window are the Moore lies buried just behind the screen arms of John Veysey, Bishop of Exeter, in the north aisle. The inscrip on on his and Edward VI. grave emphasises that he was a ‘special benefactor of the church’ and says he Inside the church the long Jacobean died on 20 August 1837. Sir William Pole gallery was erected in 1637. Along the (who became Lord of the neighbouring front are sixteen fi gures, looking rather Manor of Aller when he married Mary, like Guy Fawkes, but actually represen ng daughter of Sir William Periam) says that the four evangelists and the twelve Sir John Moore’s son Humfry ‘wasted apostles, with St Andrew in the middle his estate, and brought his House to a and St Peter and St John on either side low ebb’. (Descrip on of Devon 1635). of him. Above the gallery over the south He may have ruined his family trying porch you can see the priest’s squint to outdo John Lane. Certainly the next which enabled the priest in the Middle three genera ons of Moores were Ages to keep an eye on the church from not buried in St Andrew’s. The family his chamber. An organ built by Brookings returned to the church to bury George of Exeter in 1826 was installed and Moore (a staunch royalist whose estates paid for by public subscrip on, but the were declared forfeit for treason by people of Cullompton refused to pay the Cromwell’s Act of 18 November 1652) organist’s salary. in 1669, and his son, George Moore, the last of his line, in 1711. The wagon roof has been recoloured The Rood Screen above the Chancel, but not above the

This page has kindly been sponsored by Dunn & Baker 01884 33818 This page has kindly been sponsored by 0845 345 2138 12 ...... 13 nave. Thereby hangs a tale. When Dr established’ (le er from Sykes to his Exeter, and in June Froude le to work Oliver fi rst visited the church in 1824 London solicitor, 1838) elsewhere. The wagon roof above the everything was in good order. The vicar nave was le untouched. was John Templer. He had married The chancel was saved by William Froude Sarah Skinner, whose father was a local (1810-1879). He was Brunel’s engineer Three years later W C Grant moved into man and former churchwarden. He in charge of building the new railway line Cullompton and bought the Hillersdon was a popular and energe c vicar, and from the Somerset border to Exeter. He Estate, where he proceeded to build Dr Oliver was pleased ‘to witness his came to live in Cullompton. In 1839 he himself a new house. He organised, exemplary a en on to the neatness and was living in St Patrick’s in Church Street. and largely paid for, a major restora on improvement of the fabric’ (EcclesiasƟ cal Sykes appointed him Vicar’s Warden in programme in 1849 and 1850. The pews AnƟ quiƟ es in Devon) (1840), vol. I, p112). 1842, 1843 and 1844. He organised, and were of all shapes and sizes and came But he had died suddenly in December to a large extent, paid for, the rebuilding right up the screen. There was an ugly 1829. From 1830 to 1834 the vicar was of the chancel, the enlargement of the gallery blocking the west end of Lane’s John Hodge, but he was 78 and lived in east window and the recolouring of the Aisle. They were all removed, and the Honiton Clyst. He was an absentee vicar: chancel roof, which was fi nished early in present pews put in their place. The there is no evidence that he visited 1844. Vicar donated the new pulpit. The west side of the rood screen was repaired and Cullompton more than once in four He then off ered to restore the rest of the years. The minister in charge, 1830-34 repainted. The windows were reglazed. nave if the people of Cullompton would The walls were repaired and replastered. and vicar, 1834-57, was William Sykes. bear one tenth of the cost. The people He was a very diff erent man. His brother, The murals were uncovered, recorded of Cullompton declined. On 1 May 1844 and covered up again. And the church Sir Francis Sykes, was enormously rich. the railway was opened from London to His sister-in-law was the mistress of took on something like its modern The Burne-Jones Window Benjamin Disraeli and perhaps also of aspect. Lord Lyndhurst. His father-in-law was in Lane’s Aisle and the Burne-Jones Further substan al improvements were window on the south side of that aisle. Edward Ga ey, the last town clerk of the introduced by Vicar Lewis Po er, 1872-87: unreformed Corpora on of Exeter. He a new organ by Henry Speechly with two Although some altera ons had taken did not have an easy me in Cullompton. manuals and twenty stops; a reredos place early in the 20th century to the They were diffi cult years everywhere, of Caen stone, paid for by voluntary organ originally built by Speechly, it with disputes about thes and church subscrip on, and illuminated at the received its most extensive rebuild in rates. Here there were charges of expense of Squire Grant in 1876, to 1991 when the instrument was restored, simony as well (see Old Cullompton, part thank God for his son’s safe return from enlarged, the tonal quali es enhanced 2, 1987). And while everyone quarrelled an Arc c cruise; and a number of stained and a new ac on provided along with the church fabric was le to deteriorate. glass windows. Most of the stained glass a detached console. This work was ‘Everything in the parish is going wrong; windows belong to this period. Half of carried out by Michael Farley of Budleigh the Eastern Window of the Church has them were paid for by the Hill family. Salterton. been blown in for some me. The whole Henry and Charles Hillwere sons of a fabric is in a disgraceful state of repair, schoolmaster in Cullompton. They went The oak panels round the sanctuary and they are determined to leave it so. to London and made their fortunes as were added during the Second World In fact they are so hos le towards me military tailors in Bond Street, before War while Watkins Grubb was vicar, in that I fear peace can never again be re ring to Brighton. The Hills provided memory of various local people. The The East Window the main east window, the east window most dis nguished was Alfred Burrow

This page has kindly been sponsored by TRUMP ENGINEERINGRING 01392 881402 This page has kindly been sponsored by 14 ...... 15 (1867-1941), who prac sed as a solicitor at the Walronds, was the largest landowner Thank you to all our Sponsors, in the parish, and was for many years Captain of the Tower. The old oak panel by the without whose support this booklet would not have been possible. vestry door, depic ng Faith, Hope, St Philip and St Thomas, was given by Mrs Burrow in his memory in 1943. Watkins Grubb’s fi nal contribu on was the list of patrons and Bill & Taylor Optometrists, 59 Fore Street, Cullompton vicars in the church porch (1941). There is a wealth of history behind that dry list of EX15 1JY 0188432218 www.billandtaylor.co.uk names: see for example Our Vicars (1985). Café Calm at Culm Valley Integrated Centre for Health, Cafe Calm ... Willand Rd, Cullompton EX15 1FE 01884 831300 www.chris nescuisine.co.uk Walk round the church to admire the tower and Lane’s Aisle and the surrounding CODEX associates, Mulberry House, Coburg Place, ODE houses. The old Vicarage, now much altered as an old people’s home, was built by ASSOCIATES Vicar John Templer in 1820. The imposing house at the entrance to the vicarage was Cullompton EX15 1XN 01884 839737 www.codexassociates.co.uk built by Frank Sellwood in 1888. He was a wealthy tanner, patron of the living, vicar’s Cullompton Foot Care, 4 Lower Bullring, Cullompton Cullompton Foot Care warden, vicar’s brother-in-law, chairman of the Town Council and Cullompton’s fi rst 01884 839719 www.cullomptonfootcare.co.uk county councillor: one more in the long list of names, Moore, Lane, Froude, Grant, Hill, Burrow, Sellwood, who have made major contribu ons to the history of St Andrew’s Cullompton Town Team c/o Penny Bayer, Project Church. Coordinator, Cullompton Town Hall, Cullompton cullomptontownteam.wordpress.com Cullompton Venue, Community Centre, Pye Corner, Cullompton Venue Cullompton EX15 1JX 01884 32265 cullomptoncommunitycentre.org.uk

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