St Mary's Church, Ottery St Mary
St Mary's Church in Ottery St Mary is one of the most magnificent medieval parish churches in Devon, often described as a miniature Exeter Cathedral — and for good reason. Its grandeur is quite extraordinary for a market town, and visitors who arrive expecting a modest country church are invariably taken aback by the scale and ambition of the building before them. The church is a Grade I listed building and a scheduled ancient monument, recognised as one of the finest examples of Decorated and Perpendicular Gothic architecture in the west of England. It sits at the heart of this small Devon town on the River Otter, lending the whole settlement its distinctive character and a sense of centuries of unbroken devotion to a single place.
The origins of St Mary's stretch back to the Norman period, but the church as it largely appears today was rebuilt and greatly expanded in the fourteenth century under Bishop John de Grandisson of Exeter, who acquired the church in 1337. Grandisson had a particular ambition: he wished to create a collegiate church modelled closely on Exeter Cathedral, where he had overseen major building works. The result was an unusually elaborate structure for a parish church, complete with transepts, twin towers at the west end and another pair of towers at the transept ends, misericords in the chancel, and a variety of richly carved stonework. The college of priests Grandisson established continued until the Dissolution of the Monasteries, when it was suppressed in 1545. Despite the upheavals of the Reformation, the fabric of the church survived in remarkable condition.
The church is intimately connected with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who was born in Ottery St Mary in 1772. His father, the Reverend John Coleridge, served as vicar of the church and as master of the grammar school, and the young Samuel would have known the building with deep familiarity. Coleridge scholars and literary pilgrims visit the church partly to stand in the landscape of his earliest years, and the connection lends the place an additional layer of cultural meaning beyond its purely architectural interest. A plaque and other commemorations within the town honour this association, though the church itself is the physical heart of that early world.
Standing outside, the building makes an immediate impression. The four towers — the pair of sturdy Perpendicular towers at the west end and the two transeptal towers — give St Mary's a silhouette unlike almost any other parish church in England, and the resemblance to Exeter Cathedral is unmistakable once pointed out. The stonework is warm red and buff sandstone, weathered beautifully over six centuries, and the proportions feel simultaneously massive and harmonious. Inside, the church is cool and hushed in the way of great Gothic spaces, with filtered light falling through medieval and Victorian stained glass onto the flagged floors. The wooden misericords in the choir stalls are among the highlights — intricately carved with figures, animals, and foliage — and the rare medieval astronomical clock, similar in style to the one in Exeter Cathedral, is a particularly arresting feature, still in working order and drawing curious visitors to stand before it and watch its mechanism mark the hours.
The astronomical clock deserves special mention. Dating from the fourteenth century and believed to be one of the oldest working clocks in the world, it shows the earth at the centre of the universe in the pre-Copernican model, with the sun and moon moving around it. It is a remarkable survival from an age when such mechanical wonders were rare and precious, and its continued presence in the church — ticking away in the same building it was installed in over six hundred years ago — gives visitors a genuine frisson of contact with deep time.
The surrounding town of Ottery St Mary is a pleasant and largely unspoilt Devon market town, set in the valley of the River Otter between Exeter and the coast. The church occupies a commanding position and can be seen from many points in and around the town. The streets nearby are lined with traditional Devon townhouses, independent shops and pubs, and the whole place retains the feel of a working community rather than a tourist destination, which is part of its appeal. The wider landscape is deeply rural, with rolling red-soiled Devon countryside, the Otter valley offering good walking routes through meadow and woodland. The town is also known for its extraordinary annual Guy Fawkes Night celebrations involving flaming tar barrels, a tradition that draws large crowds every fifth of November.
For visitors, the church is generally open during daylight hours throughout the year, though it is advisable to check locally for specific opening times, particularly if you wish to see the interior during a quiet moment rather than coinciding with a service. Ottery St Mary is situated about twelve miles east of Exeter, easily reached by car via the B3174 or the A30, and there is parking available in the town centre. The town lies on a bus route from Exeter, making it accessible without a car, though services are less frequent than in the city. The church is largely accessible at ground level, though the interior has some uneven flagging. Visiting on a weekday outside school holidays tends to offer a quieter, more contemplative experience, and the light inside the church is particularly beautiful on a clear morning when the sun comes through the south windows.
Among the more unusual aspects of St Mary's is its eagle lectern, believed to date from the medieval period, and its collection of monumental brasses and tomb effigies that span several centuries of local gentry and clergy. The church also contains some fine Victorian restoration work, carried out sensitively enough that it complements rather than overwhelms the medieval fabric. The combination of the working astronomical clock, the misericords, the Coleridge connection, the four-tower silhouette, and the sheer improbability of finding a church of cathedral quality in a small Devon town makes St Mary's genuinely one of the hidden treasures of English ecclesiastical architecture — deserving far more visitors than it typically receives.