Portlemouth

from

Some Old Devon Churches

By J. Stabb

London: Simpkin et al (1908-16)

Page 189

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.

PORTLEMOUTH. St. Onolaus. The church consists of chancel, nave, north and south transepts, north and south aisles, north porch, and embattled west tower containing three bells. The church, with the exception of the tower, was rebuilt in the 15th century.

The rood screen exhibits some very fine carving [plate 189]; the groining is missing, but the remains of the ancient carving, which have been fastened on the spandrels, are particularly fine. The lower panels have paintings of saints and Evangelists. We here find Sir John Schorn, a Buckinghamshire rector [ca. 1300]; he was supposed to have caught the Devil and shut him up in a boot. Here, as at Alphington and Wolborough, he is represented holding a long boot in his hand with the Devil's head emerging from the top. Up to the time of the Reformation [ca. 1550] he was greatly venerated as a patron against gout and the ague. His shrine was at North Marston, Buckinghamshire. On the chancel door is a representation of the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin. The church was restored in 1881.

The registers date: baptisms, 1563; marriages, 1594; burials, 1562.