St James' Church, is a church in the small village of Iddesleigh Devon,
It dates back to the 13th century, although most of the structure dates from the 15th century, and there have been various changes since then.
The church of St. James is in the Gothic style. The walls are of coursed slate stone rubble with some granite ashlar in the buttresses of the tower. The roof is gable ended, covered in slate with decorative ridge tiles from the late 19th century. There is a four-stage tower with battlements at the western end with angle buttresses, with a crouching animal gargoyle on top of each buttress.
The tower holds six bells. The first two are dated 1620 and the third is dated 1629. The tenor bell has an inscription in old English characters dedicating it to St. George. In 1911 two new bells were added to commemorate the coronation of King George V.
The church can seat 120 people. The interior is a tall granite arcade with three bays. It has piers with moulded cup capitals and 4-centred moulded arches.
The nave and north aisle have excellent barrel vault cellings. These are original, and have high relief moulding. There is a section of 15th century screen with perpendicular tracery in the north chapel, which was renovated in 1883. The semi-octagonal panelled pulpit is early 17th century, with an integral carved lectern. The font is octagonal, of granite with carved panels and a moulded shaft, and may date to 1538. The north wall of the chancel holds a slate memorial dated 1681 to Wilmot Veale, wife of the rector. The inscription is in gothic script, and the memorial has a high relief carved figure of a woman and child
The church holds a fairly well-preserved effigy of a military figure almost 6 feet (1.8 m) long from about 1250. It is held under a low arch in the north wall of the north aisle, behind the organ. The figure is recumbent, with crossed legs. The head is on a rectangular pillow and the feet rest on a lion. The figure is dressed in mail under a surcoat which falls open at the front. The knight wore a sword and a shield with no heraldry. Possibly the effigy represents an ancestor of Sir John Sully, a crusader who owned property at Iddesleigh, where he died in 1387 at the age of 105.
The two graves we are using for the number crunching are for Wilf Ellis & Albert Weeks,the two gentleman who Micaeal Morpurgo spoke too about their experiances.
The Co-ords will take you to two Graves to get information from.
The First Grave is that of Albert Weeks
He died ABth June C99D aged 9E
The Second grave is that of Wilf Ellis (gravestone missing - see picture in the gallery)
He died FGth October 1H8J aged 82
Now all you need to do is a little calculating:
N50 (B-A) C . (F+J) F E
W004 (A-J) F . (A-C) H (A+C+J)
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For full information on how you can expand the Church Micro series by sadexploration please read the Place your own Church Micro page before you contact him at churchmicro.co.uk
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
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