Bere Ferrers, Devon

As we arrived at St Andrew, open [Jenkins rating 2*], the heavens opened and this rather spoilt the visit for me; it was wet, grey and very poor light and this had a negative impact for me. That said it contains some fantastic glass, C14th and modern, two monumental effigies to Reginald and William de Ferrers and a crude font. It's a shame we visited on such a gloomy late afternoon.

ST ANDREW. Low down, close to the estuary of the river Tavy. A church of considerable interest in that it belongs essentially to a period earlier than nearly all South Devon village churches. It consists of nave, long transepts, and chancel, plus S aisle, S porch, and S chancel-aisle. Its building history has not yet been sufficiently elucidated. The style of all but the aisle and porch points to two dates, c. 1300 and c. 1330, and the principal recorded date is the foundation of an Archpresbytery with an archpriest and four priests in 1333. The N transept arch and the recess in the N transept (both of blue stone) appear earliest. Of the windows some are cusped lancets or two-light cusped lancets with a pointed quatrefoil above, others are clearly Dec. Cf. also the three Piscinas and the Sedilia, and the W tower, thin and unbuttressed. Only the S aisle and chancel aisle (see the A-type piers and  the depressed moulded arches) and the two-storeyed S porch with a handsome ribbed ceiling are later. - FONT. Circular, Norman, perhaps made up of two capitals. If so, they would be evidence of a previous Norman church. -  ALTAR-STONE. A curious blue stone plate behind the present altar, decorated with rose tracery on a honeycomb ground. Can it be part of the original decoration of the chancel? - SCREEN. Only the Wainscoting remains. - BENCHES. Many, and not only bench ends as usual. Decorated with large, i.e. one-tier, blank traceried arches. - STAINED GLASS. A specially precious possession of the church. In the E window part of the early C14 glass. Christ seated in the centre Light, the Ferrers donor and his wife kneeling in the outer lights. Also figures of saints, less complete, and smaller fragments in the tracery. The colouring still with the glow which later medieval English glass so often lacks. - MONUMENTS. Excellent original white limestone recess in the N chancel wall, with big cusped arch under crocketed gable - no ogee details. Under the arch in the recess the slender (alas, poorly preserved) figures of a cross-legged knight and a lady wearing a wimple. The cusps end in fine heads; in the gable two censing angels. Such angels appear in St James’ Chapel, Exeter Cathedral, about 1290, the head cusps in the Richard de Stapleton monument at Exeter Cathedral of c. 1320. The effigies at Bere Ferrers may represent Sir William de Ferraris and his wife Matilda. - In the N transept another original recess, the arch of blue stone with the effigy of a cross-legged knight. - Also a dark grey free-standing tomb-chest with shields in Early Renaissance wreaths, said to be for Lord Willoughby de Broke, d. 1522. In the churchyard the tombstone of the elder Stothard, the artist-antiquarian.

BERE FERRERS. Attractively set on the Tavy estuary, it looks across the water to lovely woods. Its chief attraction is by the river, a 14th century church with one great treasure and much of interest and beauty. One of its great features is a fine sequence of windows showing the development from the simple 13th century lancet up to the great windows of the 15th century, and down to the debased 16th century style, like a history of the rise and fall of tracery.

The porch has carved bosses in its flat roof and a room above it, and the old font looks like part of a carved pillar. There are the roughly carved panels of the old screen with blurred figures of saints; benches hewn 500 years ago, some with traceried ends and with the De Ferrers arms; a big peephole; an old priest’s tombstone once used as a cottage doorstep; and a Tudor fireplace in the north transept. The old altar stone (ornamented with roses) is now a stepping-stone to the altar; behind the altar is another big stone (with tracery and three medallions) which may have been a part of a tombstone.

There is a huge marble tomb, with panelled sides and shields in wreaths, of the second Lord Willoughby de Broke, who died in 1522, and under an arch lies all that is left of a cross-legged knight with a lion at his feet. He is a de Ferrers from the church that stood here before this, one of the family whose castle next door has vanished save for an ivy-covered wall on a farm.

Under the canopy of an Easter sepulchre with nuns and monks on the arch lies a knight with his sword and a lady in a wimple believed to be William de Ferrers and his wife Matilda. He restored this church 600 years ago, and fittingly enough we see him again in its east window, the chief glory of the church. This fine window has the only stained glass here; and it is the oldest glass in Devon outside Exeter Cathedral, which has very little. It shows Sit William kneeling in a brown gown, with the church in his hand and a shield below; Christ seated in glory with His wounded hands raised to bless; Lady Matilda with a veil and a shield; and three figures of unknown people. Above them all are nine little roundels on a red background, with figures too small to be seen; and below them is a red and brown saint with a blue hat.

The window is a fine possession for a village, yet there was a day when it brought a little tragedy to this place. It was in 1821, when the antiquary Charles Stothard (who copied the Bayeux tapestry and wrote about it) fell from a ladder while making a tracing of this glass, and was killed. He was laid to rest outside the window, and a brass plate marks the spot where he fell. A brass tablet on these walls tells of another tragedy a century later, when ten men from New Zealand, on their way to join their comrades on Salisbury Plain, were killed here while getting out of the train.

Flickr.