The Church of the Assumption of Our Lady, Torquay

Introduction

The Church of the Assumption of Our Lady in Torquay, within the Diocese of Plymouth, was built in 1853 by J Hansom, with an aisle and Lady Chapel added in 1858. The church was built on land donated by Robert Shedden Sulyarde Cary.

Architecture and furnishings

The first stone was laid and blessed by the Right Reverend George Errington, first Bishop of Plymouth, on 24th April 1853. The church is built of local grey limestone rubble with freestone dressings and slate roofs, in the Decorated style. The church has a nave, chancel, north and south transepts, north and south aisles, and a north-west porch. The interior includes a 4-bay nave with a west end gallery containing an organ.

The east window is by Hardman, from the 1860s. A fine set of late C19 Hardman windows in the S aisle includes one to Henry Cary with a portrait figure of Cary on a bier at the base. A remarkable wall monument in a round-headed niche on the S aisle wall has a naturalistic white marble head of the Virgin above an inscription to Edward Melchior Jean Marie, Prince de Polignac, composer of music, 1834-1901. The north arcade has polished Italian columns and moulded capitals, with double-chamfered arches.

The south aisle has different polished marble shafts, with the two easternmost columns clustered. The chancel arch is moulded on short marble shafts with Early English capitals, springing from carved heads. The south aisle roof is divided into separate bays with transverse members with hammerbeam detail. The church has a gabled bellcote at the junction of chancel and nave.

The west end has a central buttress flanked by one-light traceried windows with a traceried spherical triangle above. The church has a gabled porch in the westernmost bay with a chamfered arched doorway, coped gable and statue niche. The church has a lean-to roof with timber trusses and a stone arch into the transept. The church has 3-bay north and south arcades that differ from one another, with the west bay having a low triple arcade into the west ends of the aisles.

The church has a stone altar table on three shafts with Early English capitals. The church has a baptistry that abuts the chancel oddly with two arcades parallel to one another and a sort of mini-aisle in timber posts. The church has a north-east Lady chapel and the south-east end is used as a baptistry. The church has a buttressed transept with a 3-light window with trefoil-headed lights.

The church has a north side with three windows to the chancel. The church has four gables to the south elevation.

The northern aisle features the Rose Window, depicting events relating to Our Lady's part in the redemption. The Lady chapel has a 19th-century stone carved brattished reredos divided into bays by slender marble shafts. The baptistry has a boarded keeled wagon roof preserving 19th-century painted decoration. The 20th-century pulpit incorporates a carved figure panel that may have come from the 19th-century reredos.

Beaten copper Stations of the Cross are on the south aisle wall. Hardman windows showing Marian symbols are in the side wall of the Lady chapel and in the east window.