Talaton

from

Some Old Devon Churches

By J. Stabb

London: Simpkin et al (1908-16)

Page 227

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.

TALATON. St. James. The church consists of chancel, nave, south aisle, short north aisle, south porch, and west tower with six bells. The tower has grotesque gargoyles, and three figures at each of the four corners, probably intended for the twelve Apostles; there is also a statue of the Blessed Virgin and Child lower down in the south-east angle of the tower. The south porch is very fine, with pinnacles and a niche for the saint over the doorway.

The screen [plate 227], of the Halberton type, extends across chancel and south aisle; it is of dark oak with gilt bosses at the intersection of the ribs of the vaulting; there is a cornice of three rows and cresting. The chancel portion consists of five bays and the aisle portion of three; it retains its doors. The roof over the chancel is richly gilt. The capitals of the piers are embellished with carved flowers, oak leaves and acorns; in the roof of the nave are coloured and gilt bosses, those in the centre having pendants. The Royal arms hang over the tower arch. The font is Norman, the bowl and part of the shaft old, and the pillars and base of the shaft restored.

The registers date from 1621.