This photograph taken in the nave at about the turn of the twentieth century, reveals painted wooden tablets flanking either sides of the western tower arch, showing the Commandments, Creed and Lord's prayer. Above the arch is a panel showing an eye with rays emanating from it, framed by theatre-style curtains tied back by cords.
At about this time, in 1905, a visitor to Branscombe, Beatrix Cresswell, noted in her diary that Saint Winifred's was
`in deplorable condition ... damp, dilapidation, neglect, dirt and desolation ... and kept locked.'
A 1908 report to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners proved Ms. Cresswell's description was not exaggerated. There was weakness in some walls, decayed window tracery, spreading of the roofs, damp, and dry rot in the floors. The heating was by coke-fired stoves. The subsequent restoration of 1911 by W.D. Caröe, under the watchful eye of Branscombe's new vicar and amateur historian, the Reverend A. Steele King, probably saved the church for future generations. The nave roof was stripped. Some corbels in the north nave wall were replaced. Wooden floors were replaced in the nave, while the stone flags were re-laid on a concrete base. All walls were stripped and replastered, which is when the fifteenth century mural fragment was found. Known lancets in the south nave wall and north wall of the tower were unblocked. Hot water heating was piped from a separate building. A south transept door was provided, the pulpit moved and the horse-box pews replaced. The altar was replaced and the original used as a credence table. The oak gallery, which had been moved eastwards to accommodate an internal staircase, was returned to its original position.
With Saint Winifred's now restored to something approaching its
former glory, the problem of the lost Norman font remained. The
poor earthen basin had outserved its use after three hundred and
fifty years, and the Reverend Puddicombe's fluted pedestal, described
in 1906 by local church historian Elijah Chick as `peculiar',
had been consigned to the new boiler-house, where it was employed
as a support. So it was cause for celebration when a fifteenth
century stone basin was offered as a gift by East Teignmouth parish.
It had been found buried beneath the original floor of that church
which, as we have seen, may have been a sister church in design
to Saint Winifred's, seven hundred years before. It has an octagonal
bowl with four-leafed panels, with large leaves and a head to
support the bowl. The pillar is modern.
The renovations cost £3000 and Saint Winifred's was re-opened by Archibald, Lord Bishop of Exeter, on May the 10th., 1912.
Twenty-five years later, in 1937, the twentieth century finally caught up with Branscombe's parish church, when the Reverend William Horace Raymer threw the switch on Saint Winifred's electric lighting. In 1988, the church lighting replaced and expanded to include external floodlights.
One questionable "improvement" of 1911 which undoubtedly
marred the overall effect for the next forty years, was a new
vestry, which was constructed against the west wall, incorporating
and completely obscuring the west door. Thankfully, it was demolished
in 1951, when the foundations gave way. The west door was uncovered
once more, and a new vestry accommodated beneath part of the sixteenth
century gallery. It was lined with oak paneling of the same period,
donated by the Ford family of Branscombe. In 1993 the vestry was
enlarged to the full width of the gallery behind an attractive
modern screen; the main part of the Elizabethan paneling now hangs
in the south transept.
Drawings © 1996 Angela Lambert
© 1996 Ronald Branscombe branscombe@globalnet.co.uk
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This page last updated: 15 August 1996 09:55:52