Churches which still retain west gallery features or connections

There are several references to organs on the church accounts, buhere are two references to music:

Anstice late wife of Robert Wescombe here
Built this loft in the Church of Kentisbeare,
For the convenient hearing of the Word
And praising of the true and living Lord
She also gave the proffit of the same
Unto the poor in memory of her name.
The donors are deceased and all we
Who now survive then their good acts do see.
Wich if they should be quickly out of mind
Discourage 'twill the piously inclined.
The reason why these lines are set to view
It is because the poor should have their due."

The church has welcomed gallery music from the early days of the WGMA.

". . . yet the form still purely Jacobean".  (Pevsner)

See below.

Built 1714-1716 for dissenters used as warehouse instead fitted out 1727 -33 for Anglicans. Yellow sandstone symmetrical north &south doors shallow chancel & low West tower. Barrel vault ceiling Segmental coffering over altar 3 galleries west added 1842 when other 2altered. Columns with piers above galleries with Ionic capitals.3 sided graceful. Communion rails, panelling round chancel, pillastered ionic pieces flank pedimented panels containing inscriptions. Cartouche with lion mask and Diocesan arms is original on west gallery. (Philip Shepherd)

Churches which are known to have had west gallery features or connections

The church had a west gallery - no further details known.

(NDC)

Crediton, Dedication?

(NDC)

In 1702, a new organ and rood loft [!]  
1705 pews converted to box pews.
1711-12 gallery next to tower erected for scholars.
1757-8 Organ moved to W end and rood loft, screen etc destroyed.
1825 N and S galleries added.
1865 S and W galleries removed.
(NDC)

By my calculations this leaves the North gallery still in position., Is it?!

Also see entry for Tawstock  above

Picture:  Eric Morison.

"In 1817 a gallery was installed at the back of the church for the musicians and singers, a new cello, flute and clarinet were bought, and the violins restrung." (Church guide book.) (Jackie Patten)

Chapels which have or had west gallery features or connections

Before and After pictures of the chapel, now restored by the Historic Chapels Trust (2008).

Salem Chapel dates from 1719, although A Presbyterian Society met here prior to this. On the edge of the village it is  half hidden by a wall with square gate piers and a wrought-iron overthrow enriched with scrolls and a lamp-holder. There is also a schoolroom and tiny graveyard within its grounds. The building is square with a four-hipped roof. The walls are of mixed cob and stone construction, rendered over and secured on stone footings. Facing the road on the south-east side are two panelled doors in low segmental-headed arches. These replace former windows. Higher up is a datestone 'Salem Chapel, built 1719' and the sill is inscribed 'enlarged 1836' when the seating capacity was augmented. Each side wall contains two tall segmental-headed windows. The two tall round-headed windows at the rear date from 1836.

Inside, the gallery across the front end dates from 1719. Others were added in 1836 and are supported on slender cast-iron columns with moulded caps. The moulded and bracketed cornice is original. In the centre the vaulted ceiling rises from an iron post which replaced the original timber one and gives great character to the interior. Some earlier box pews remain in the galleries. The 18th century clock is under repair.

Visit the Historic Chapels Trust web site at: http://www.hct.org.uk/chapel10ebudleigh.html to whom we  are indebted for this information and picture.  Download their (Pdf) report here.

Churches which had west gallery features or connections, as recorded in
"SOME OLD DEVON CHURCHES" by JOHN STABB, 3 vols.  (1908-16)
For further details, including the old photographs,  see reproductions of many pages of these volumes at:
http://www.wissensdrang.com/dstabb.htm
and
http://www.wissensdrang.com/stabb000.htm#INDEX

NB  The pictures in this section take a little while to load - please be patient!

On the arch of the nave are hung the Commandments, Lord's Prayer, and the arms of George IV [r. 1820-1830]. The gallery front is carved, there are old high-backed pews, and the church has evidently not been restored for a great many years.

http://www.wissensdrang.com/stabb037.htm

There are two curious epitaphs in the churchyard, one to a blacksmith is as follows:—

The altar is surrounded on three sides by rails [plate 98a], and on the north and south sides are seats for the communicants. When nearly every church had its chancel screen, altar rails were not so necessary, but in Elizabethan days [ca. 1560-1600], when the rood screens were removed, the need became apparent. Objections were raised early in the 17th century to the rails being placed round three sides of the altar, and in the days of [Archbishop] Laud [elected 1633; executed 1645] it is common to find instructions for the rails to be placed across the chancel from north south. There are a few survivals of the three-sides rails in Devonshire, of which St. Martin's is one. We have here also the seats at each side of the chancel for the communicants; a great change from the time when the only seats in the chancel were the sedilia for the officiating priests.

The west gallery dates from the 17th century; on the front are panels bearing the Royal arms, those of the See of Exeter, and of the City of Exeter.

The wall behind the altar is panelled and has the Creed, Lord's Prayer, and Commandments, and shields with the arms of the See of Exeter, and the arms of the Hooper family.

There is a gallery with organ at the west end of the nave, and short side galleries at the ends of the aisles.

http://www.wissensdrang.com/stabb169.htm

The church [plate 179a] consists of chancel, nave, south aisle, south porch, and west tower. There were originally three bells, one recast in 1655, another in 1669, and the third in 1743, these bells have been removed to the new church in the village. The oldest parts of the church are Transitional Norman. The chancel is possibly Early English, the south aisle is Perpendicular. The principal object of interest is the screen, this and the screen at Molland are, as far as I know, the only examples we have left in Devonshire of the complete chancel enclosure of the post-Reformation type. The screen [plate 179b] consists of narrow rectangular lights, four on the north side, six on the south of the chancel door; over this is the tympanum filling the chancel arch, on this are hung paintings of the arms of one of the [King] Georges, the Commandments, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, texts, and the names of Walter Lock and Richard Harton, who were churchwardens in 1758. Mr. Bligh Bond says that in 1780 the rood beam was in existence, and was then cut up for the purpose of making bench-ends, but there is still a beam in situ above the screen which may have been a rood beam. This church is a typical example of what our parish churches looked like a century or more ago [i.e., before 1810]. Here is the old «three-decker» pulpit with sounding board [plate 179c], the altar enclosed with rails on three sides, horse-box pews, and raised seats at the west end of the nave for the choir, with holes cut in the pew front for the accommodation of the player of the bass-viol. The Transitional Norman font has been transferred to the new church, and the old church is only used occasionally in the summer months. Unfortunately early in 1908 the church was struck by lightning and much damage done. The tower was cracked, the pulpit and screen split, and the interior of the church almost ruined.

There is an old 17th century gallery at the west end, it was built in 1657; the front, which is elaborately carved, is divided into many arched and pillared Jacobean panels, separated by thick consoles of inverted acanthus, supporting an ornamental cornice; the gallery extends on each side slightly up each aisle. It was built by the second Sir John Davie of Creedy. The church was practically rebuilt in 1523, and again restored in 1847-48 at a cost of over £2,000; the clerestory was added at this time.

The rood screen is Perpendicular and is adorned with foliage and tracery [plate 236a]. The lower panels retain their ancient paintings; on the chancel doors, the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Many of the saints represented are rare, such as St. Catherine of Siena [Italy], who is only found here and at Portlemouth, a priest arrayed in a red chasuble, supposed to be St. Armil of Ploermel, in Brittany, elsewhere he is found in the Henry VII Chapel, Westminster. Here also will be found a saint with a ladder, said to be St. Emmeran of Ratisbon [Upper Bavaria, Germany], St. Vincent holding some cups, a napkin and a book; a female figure stripped to the waist, her breast pierced with arrows (called by one authority, St. Sebastian, but by Dom Bede Camm, St. Ursula, the latter is most probably correct, as it is evidently a female figure); St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke, St. John, St. Andrew, St. Philip, St. Jude, St. James the Great, St. Simon, St. Thomas, St. Bartholomew, St. Veronica, the Blessed Virgin crowned, St. Lawrence, St. Cecilia, St. Barbara, St. Apollonia, St. Dorothy, St. Syth, St. Ursula, and others, altogether there are about 40. The painting of the figures has not been restored.

There is a magnificent altar of richly carved 15th century work, from the character of the details it seems likely that it is constructed of remains of the rood loft gallery front;

Box pews:

Beneath the west gallery in the floor of the nave, partly covered by pews, is a gravestone with ledger line, the inscription as far as can be read is:—

Here lyeth the body  .  .  .  .  Martin Chilson
who departed this life ye 1 day of Novembo
Ano dom 1661.

"In time of life a virtuus Wife
 A friende and mother Deare
 Here lyeth in dust in hope and trust
 Christ's servant to appeare
 Rest there deare co  .  .  .  .  until ye day of Doome
 Rejoyne thy soule in thy celestial home."

The rood screen [plate 241] is the longest in Devonshire — 67 feet. The type is rare, the tracery very like that at Halberton. The portion across the south aisle is new, but has been well copied from the old.

The pulpit dates from 1719: the carved panel in front evidently does not form part of the original pulpit. There is an organ gallery at the west end of the nave, the Jacobean front and side are said to date from 1627. The font, reredos, and east window are comparatively modern, 1843. The stone altar is probably of the same date.

Included here because of the known manuscripts of quire music which still exist.  See Praise & Glory, WGMA, Oxford, MM.

The church is cruciform in shape and consists of chancel, nave, north and south aisles, north and south transepts, south porch, and a tower which is the glory of Dartmoor; it contains six bells of various dates, the earliest 1632, and is said to have been erected by some tin miners as a thanks offering for their success in finding tin. There is a well-carved roof with many of the original bosses: one has a goat, another a lion, a third the pelican, a fourth three rabbits, each with a single ear uniting in the centre to form a triangle, supposed to be an emblem of the Trinity; other explanations have been given of this symbol, one being that it is an alchemical symbol called the «Hunt of Venus». The tower was erected and the church enlarged in 1537. The church is so large, it has been called the «Cathedral of the Moor», in winter the larger portion of the nave is screened off.

The rood screen [plate 253a] has been cut down to the sill level; on the lower panels are a good series of paintings including St. Apollonia, St. Sebastian, St. John, St. Philip, St. Matthew, St. Jude, and St. Thomas.

In the north and south transepts are old paintings of Aaron [plate 253b] and Moses.

On Sunday, October 21st 1638, during a terrific thunderstorm, the church was struck by lightning. In his Worthies of Devon, Prince gives the following account:— "In the afternoon in service time, there happened a very great darkness, which still increased to that degree, that they could not see to read, soon after a terrible and fearful thunder was heard, like the noise of so many great guns, accompanied with dreadful lightning, to the great amazement of the people; the darkness still increasing, that they could not see each other, when there presently came such an extraordinary flame of lightning, as filled the Church with flame, smoke and a loathsome smell, like brimstone; a ball of fire came in likewise at the window, and passed through the Church, which so affrighted the congregation that most of them fell down in their seats, some upon their knees, others upon their faces, and some one upon another, crying out of burning and scalding, and all giving themselves up for dead. There were in all four persons killed and sixty-two hurt, divers of then having their linen burnt, tho' the outward garments were not so much as singed. ... The Church itself was much torn and defaced with the thunder and lightning, a beam whereof breaking in the midst, fell down between the minister and clerk, and hurt neither. The steeple was much rent, and it was observed where the Church was most torn there was the least hurt was done among the people. There was none hurt with the timber or stone, but one man who, it was judged, was killed by a fall of stone."