St Mary - Ottery St Mary, Devon - Medieval Churches on Waymarking.com

St Mary, Ottery St. Mary, a magnificent scaled-down version of Exeter Cathedral, developed as part of the College of Canons founded by John de Grandisson, Bishop of Exeter, in 1337.

"Ottery St Mary is one of many English parish churches that has you scratching your head as to how such a small community - still less than 5000 - could justify or afford such a grand church. Grand enough, indeed, to warrant five stars from Simon Jenkins and therefore one of his top one hundred. It was founded as “recently” as 1338 by Bishop Grandisson of Exeter Cathedral as a collegiate church. and had some of the attendant trappings of a monastery: chapter house, cloister and library. Collegiate churches were not monastic, however. They were home to groups of ordained priests known as “canons”. Grandisson’s vision was of a centre of “piety and learning”.

No church was mentioned in the Domesday Book although the Manor and parish were granted to Rouen Cathedral by Edward the Confessor. There are records of twelfth century vicars so there must have been a church at that time. Nobody, however, knows where it was situated or whether the present church occupies it site or even incorporated some of its fabric.

Looking at the west end one is struck by the incongruity of the so-called “Dorset Aisle” of 1520 in decidedly perpendicular style alongside the original west end. With its lancet windows and double doors it has a distinctly Early English flavour - some fifty years after Early English began to be superseded by Decorated style. You can see the two towers also have lancet windows. This is very curious and everybody seems at a loss for an explanation for this unfashionable style. Pevsner suggests that it might be because parts of the earlier Early English church may indeed have been incorporated and there was a wish to keep continuity of style. If so then Grandisson was paying far more attention to architectural consistency than was usual amongst mediaeval patrons who generally wanted the latest style in flagrant disregard of aesthetics! The east end is also anachronistic. Its window is an arrangement of no fewer than eight lancets all surmounted by a triple niche arrangement. We are not to be misled, however: the lancets are cusped and the niches have ogee curves (that is, they are s-shaped) which betrays their fourteenth century pedigree. Nevertheless, I think the style of this church would at the time have been what we now call “retro”!

The slightly un-English look of this church is accentuated by its having two towers - one above each transept. This is a rarity in English parish church architecture. It was much more the norm in great French churches and cathedrals and even then usually flanking the west front. Grandisson, however, is believed to have been aping the grandeur of Exeter Cathedral which itself has twin transept towers.

Remarkably and gratifyingly, little has changed since the church was originally built. The exception is the famous and spectacular “Dorset Aisle” on the north side of the church. It is so-called because it was sponsored by of Lady Cicely Bonneville in 1520. Herself a direct descendant of Bishop Grandisson’s sister, she was married to the Marquis of Dorset. .Rather oddly, it was tacked onto the side of the original northern aisle which is in perfect symmetry with its equally narrow southern counterpart. Its glory is its fan vaulted ceiling, surely the finest in any non-Cathedral church in England. It is undoubtedly beautiful so it is perhaps churlish to suggest that it is also somewhat incongruous! The nave and chancel are both soaring structures with magnificent rib vaults. To my eyes the Dorset aisle is a little bit squat and overall detracts from the harmony of the place. both inside and out. The overall impression of the church is of its being a little bit muddly. In reality, if you look closely, it is only the Dorset Aisle that mars almost perfect fourteenth century symmetry. Even the towers are symmetrical: don’t be misled by the addition of a squat spire on the north tower.

With its “mini-Cathedral” proportions you would expect the interior to have much of interest and you would not be disappointed. Because of my own preoccupation with mediaeval carving it is the roof bosses that excite me but there is plenty here for everyone.

The Dissolution of the Monasteries also saw the disestablishment of the “colleges”. It is not difficult to understand why. Canons had by now become embroiled in the chantry system whereby priests were paid to chant masses for the immortal souls of rich patrons in order to shorten their time in purgatory. The Reformation put paid to that practice and not before time, you might very well think. Either way, at Ottery in 1545 it also resulted in the demolition of the college buildings of which no trace is now to be seen. This was just a quarter of a century after the Dorset Aisle was built."

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Building Materials: Stone

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