The photographs on this page and elsewhere on the site were taken by the following members of the Crediton Photographic Club: M Elliot, E Rossmiller, F Sandiford-Rossmiller and J Spivey. Our grateful thanks to them for letting us use these images, they enhance the site enormously. K Barker also took a number of the photographs used.
A CD-ROM containing nine Powerpoint presentations which together comprise a detailed examination of the Church of the Holy Cross, Crediton is available, price £10 (plus £1 p&p), from Mrs Pat Browning c/o The Parish Office, The Boniface Centre, Church Lane EX17 2AH
The Church of the Holy Cross and the Mother of Him who hung thereon, Crediton.
There is no trace at all of either the Saxon cathedral or the monastery which preceded it; in fact the site of these isn't known.
Because the church had collegiate status from just after the Conquest until the Reformation, it has a very unusual ground plan - the eastern wing is as long as the nave and the big central tower is immediately above the crossing. The lower part of the tower is of the mid-C12th - there are small Norman windows on both north and south flanks - the belfry has C13th windows, and the battlements and pinnacles are of the early C15th. The stone used for the exterior of the church is predominantly red volcanic trap - quarried locally - a little new red sandstone has been used in the tower and the Lady Chapel (the exterior stone used is identified as sandstone by almost every guidebook and architectural work on Devon eg Pevsner's Buildings of Devon, Hoskin's Devon, Mee's Devon and every published guide to Holy Cross, but close inspection will show that both exterior and interior building material is for the most part volcanic), and is largely of Perpendicular appearance, the result of rebuilding from the early C15th onwards, although there is fabric of the C12th in both transepts, and of the late C13th in the Chapter House and Lady Chapel. The positions of these two features indicate that the chancel was of its present size when they were constructed (see plan ).
Holy Cross, Crediton: the exterior is, for the most part, built in local red volcanic trap and is of largely Perpendicular Gothic appearance.
Inside the church, the Lady Chapel is separated from the chancel by a solid wall, and the fairly low arches of the crossing tower effectively divide off the chancel, transepts and nave (a division completed in medieval times by the rood screen). The local stone used throughout the interior (much of it being replaced in the C19th restoration), like that of the exterior, is volcanic in origin, from a quarry in Thorverton six miles away, although this stone is of a completely different colour to the red of the exterior, being a purplish blue.
The Chancel of Holy Cross, built of stone of volcanic origin in about 1420.
The church is 220ft (72m) long and the nave has six bays, the chancel five.
The oldest part of the structure is at the crossing where the tower and the piers which support it, with scalloped and plain capitals, are of the mid-twelfth century. as are parts of both transepts.
Crude Norman "bird" capital from tower pier.
The Lady Chapel is next in date, probably of the mid C13th. Access to this is by a straight ambulatory behind the altar wall. The room has five windows inserted during the Perpendicular reconstruction of the church of the early fifteenth century, although some of the stonework of their C13th predecessors survives. The chapel was used as the grammar school for Crediton from 1572 - 1860. Its blocked doorway is in the southeast corner of the chapel, where a C13th double piscina (found in the chapel of the former chapter house chapel) has now been installed. On its construction in the C13th, the Chapter House was divided into two (possibly three) storeys, the bottom one being the collegiate chapel which was originally open to the south aisle. Its arches were blocked in during the Perpendicular rebuilding. The top story was the collegiate chapter house; this is now used as the Governors' room.
The Governors' room, the former Collegiate Chapter House.
The rest of the church is Perpendicular in style. The two-storied south porch is vaulted inside, with foliage bosses. Above the piers of the nave and chancel is a fine clerestory. Shafts between the nave clerestory windows rise to the roof from corbels at the height of a decorated cornice.
The nave vault, with Hayward's wooden roofing and the clerestory (with the corbels below it).
The Buller Memorial is in the centre.
The corbels depict both foliage and heads, one of the latter (towards the south-west of the church) is of a green man who, very unusually, has foliage coming from his eyes.
Green man corbel from the south-western part of the nave.
The west window has eight lights and the similar east window replaced a more complicated design in the C19th. All tracery, the cornice, corbels and other mouldings are in Beer stone. By the very early fifteenth century, the church was described as being almost in ruins, but the Perpendicular rebuilding was certainly under way by 1410 and had been completed well before mid-century.
The appearance of the church today is largely due to the restoration work of John Hayward and others between 1848 and 1889. The vaults were completely reconstructed, but their restoration was guided by the form of the Perpendicular roofs. The nave roof has tie-beams with vertical struts, the chancel was given a shallower roof. At the same time a great deal of interior stonework was renewed. The Lady Chapel was restored to its original use in 1876-7. Further restoration of the church took place in 1913.
The oldest surviving furnishing is the font, which is Norman (dated about 1150) and of table-top type.
The table-top Norman font, the oldest thing in Holy Cross (from around 1150)
Its elaborate cover is by Caroe, and was presented in 1905. In the chancel, the high altar with its reredos are by Fellowes Prynne (1927), the piscina to their right is probably early C14th in date. In the south wall of the chancel are early C15th sedilia, which, although badly mutilated, retain much colour and the remains of a good figure. Immediately behind the sedilia facing on to the south choir aisle is an ornate recess tomb from the same period which is possibly that of an early dean of Crediton (it certainly belonged to a senior cleric). The tomb is carved from alabaster, the same material as the sedilia and is almost certainly by the same mason (the two items are en bloc and were probably funded by the will of the same person). It is very richly colured and decorated. The frieze above the recess is particulary interesting. Although badly damaged, the groups of figures in the frieze can be identified. They include the Ascension, the Annunciation, the Adoration of the Magi, a Nativity Scene and a depiction of the soul of the occupant of the tomb being wafted heavenwards by two angels.
Ornate Recess Tomb, early C15th, south choir aisle.
In the old chapel of St Nicholas (now called the Friends' Chapel), a beautifully carved Flemish merchant's chest (C15th) serves as the altar. The central panel of this is a Nativity scene, above which is a very fine lock.
C15th Flemish Merchant's Chest, the altar of the Friends' Chapel.
The Governors' stalls, by Dart and Francis, were placed in the choir in the late C19th , and the choir stalls under the tower a little earlier. These, and the nave benches (which replaced box pews) which were installed at the time of Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1887, were commissioned by Hayward. The eagle lectern, dated 1894, is by John Mortimer.
The nave seen from the lectern.
In common with almost all West Country churches, the Reformation claimed all of the medieval stained glass formerly in Holy Cross. Some of the Victorian and later glass, however, is of good quality.
In the south transept are three C13th coffin lids in Purbeck marble, decorated with foliated crosses. These almost certainly belonged to the tombs of canons of the collegiate church. At the eastern end of the south choir aisle (it was in the north transept) is the tomb-chest of Sir John de Sully, who died in 1387. His effigy wears the camail armour of the late C14th , and his wife has the costume of the time. Sir John, an early Knight of the Garter who was present at Crecy, was 106 when he died. An enormous memorial to General Sir Redvers Buller d 1908, by Caroe and executed by a local company, Dart and Francis, occupies the whole of the east arch of the nave. Designed in a flamboyant Edwardian style using mosaic and figure decoration it was financed by public subscription and installed in 1911.
On the north side of the chancel is the good monument to Sir William Peryam, d.1604, who was one of the judges at the trial of Mary Queen of Scots.
The other big tomb on the north side of the chancel is that of the Tuckfields : John Tuckfield (d December 1630), his daughter-in-law Elizabeth (d March 1630) and his son, Thomas (d November 1642). The latter caused the memorial to be erected in the early 1630's.
The flamboyant Buller memorial by Caroe, installed 1911
A wooden statue of Winfrith (Boniface's given name) stands in the south nave aisle. This was presented to the church in 1979 by the sculptor, Witold Kavalec.
Head of the effigy of Winfrith by Witold Kavalec, 1979
The door to the stone staircase which gives access to the Governors' Room is kept locked. However, on Wednesday and Saturday mornings - when guides are usually in the church (visitors should check on this with the parish office before coming), the room can be reached. Besides having a magnificent ambience and a floor with original planking more than two feet in width, this room contains many artefacts of interest, which include two bosses from the Perpendicular wooden roof, two-hundred year old plans of the church, charity boards, the Governors' furniture, the buff coat, armour and weaponry of a Civil War trooper and many other items.
Some items in the Governors' Room.
Page last updated 05/12/06