Huish, North

from

Some Old Devon Churches

By J. Stabb

London: Simpkin et al (1908-16)

Page 128

Transcribed and edited by Dr Roger Peters

Full text available at

https://www.wissensdrang.com/dstabb.htm

Prepared by Michael Steer

Between 1908 and 1916, John Stabb, an ecclesiologist and photographer who lived in Torquay, published three volumes of Some Old Devon Churches and one of Devon Church Antiquities. A projected second volume of the latter, regarded by Stabb himself as a complement to the former, did not materialize because of his untimely death on August 2nd 1917, aged 52. Collectively, Stabb's four volumes present descriptions of 261 Devon churches and their antiquities.

HUISH, NORTH. St. Mary. The church, which was consecrated on June 15th 1336 by Bishop Grandisson, consists of chancel, nave, south aisle, north transept, and west tower with spire, containing five bells. The original stone altar slab is still in the church, and at the east end of the aisle are the remains of a fine screen [plate 128a]. It consists of four bays, and the central doorway which retains the doors. The groining is gone, and the spandrel spaces are plain, but there is some good carving carried up the centre from the caps of the pillars which supported the groining. There is a double row of cresting and modern cornice. The lower panels have been taken out, but the tracery remains.

The granite font [plate 128b] is dated 1662, but this is not necessarily the date of making the font, as during the Commonwealth [1649-1659] the fonts were often removed from the church, and when they were replaced at the Restoration [1660] the date of such replacing was often carved upon the font. This is the only dated font I have seen in Devonshire, with the exception of that at St. John's-in-the-Wilderness, and that I do not think is a genuine date.

The churched was restored in 1884-85 at a cost of £600.

The shaft of the old cross is built up in the lychgate.

The registers date from 1656.