St Mary's Church, Ottery St Mary

St Mary’s Church, Ottery St Mary
St Mary’s Church from the south east
Coordinates: 50°45′11.04″N 3°16′44.03″W / 50.7530667°N 3.2788972°W / 50.7530667; -3.2788972
Location	Ottery St Mary
Country	England
Denomination	Church of England
Previous denomination	Roman Catholic
Churchmanship	Broad Church
Website	otterystmary.org.uk
History
Dedication	St Mary the Virgin
Consecrated	1260
Architecture
Heritage designation	Grade I listed
Specifications
Length	163 feet (50 m)
Height	71 feet (22 m)
Administration
Parish	Ottery St Mary
Deanery	Ottery
Archdeaconry	Exeter
Diocese	Diocese of Exeter
Province	Province of Canterbury
Clergy
Rector	Revd Stephen Weston

St Mary’s Church, Ottery St Mary is a Grade I listedparish church in the Church of England in Ottery St Mary, Devon.

The parish church of St Mary's has been referred to as "a miniature Exeter Cathedral". Like the cathedral it is cruciform in plan, with transepts formed by towers

Nikolaus Pevsner described the building as “lying large and low like a tired beast”. It is 163 feet long, and the towers are 71 feet high. It was consecrated in 1260, at which time the manor and patronage of the church belonged to Rouen Cathedral, as it had from before the Norman invasion. Pevsner assumed that the tower-transepts and the outer walls of the chancel date back to 1260, and that the towers were built in imitation of those at Exeter.

In 1335 John Grandisson, Bishop of Exeter, bought the manor and advowson from Rouen and on 22 January 1338 established a collegiate foundation with forty members. He rebuilt much of the church, and the present nave, chancel, aisles and Lady chapel date from this time. The nave is of five bays, and the chancel, unusually long in proportion, is of six, with vestry chapels to north and south.

The church is noted for its painted roof and early sixteenth-century fan vaulted aisle, the Dorset Aisle, designed and commissioned by Cecily Bonville, 7th Baroness Harington, whose first husband was Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset. The church has ten misericords dating from the building of the church in 1350, five showing the arms of Bishop John de Grandisson. The church interior also has two medieval carved stone green men. Other interesting features include the tombs of Otho de Grandisson and his wife, the altar screen, sedilia, and a wooden eagle given by Bishop Grandisson.