Bradstone Devon
Church of St Nonna, Bradstone Devon thttps://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/74597t9UMp ook its name from
a ‘broad stone’,  possibly prehistoric , which is still to be seen about 200 yards east of the church.  The dedication to St Nonna suggests a Celtic connection &amp; settlement before Saxon times.  In c970 Ordgar, the Ealdorman in Devon under Edward the Confessor, set free 10 slaves at Bradstone where he was lying sick, indicating a manor house with possibly a church or oratory then.
The 1086 Domesday Survey recorded it had belonged to King Harold, and now belonged to Baldwin the Sheriff:  it contained 17 villagers, 4 smallholders and 4 slaves.  ( In 1850 the parish contained 6 farmers, a miller and a smith and wheelwright but no village as such then or now) . 
However the church stands beside an early-17c Manor House, now a farmhouse known as Bradstone Barton, built by the Cloberry family , which retains its picturesque late 16c gatehouse , the pinnacles of which complement those on the church tower.  

The present church was dedicated by Bishop Walter Bronescombe on the 2nd  October 1261, and served the needs of the parish until it was declared redundant in 1996.
There are three stages of building. The south wall appears to date from the 11c or 12c , built of local rubble masonry, with small lancet windows and a round-headed doorway. 
The tower is c.1500, and the north aisle, built of squared
blocks of Hurdwick stone, has three-light granite arch-headed windows of the 15c or 16c , the east window rather more
elaborate than those on the north and west.  Probably also at the time the south wall of the nave was raised by about 3 feet using the Hurdwick stone, a square-headed window put into the east wall and the three-light window inserted into the south wall east of the porch, while the small lancet windows in the chancel were allowed to remain. 

The tower has large granite pinnacles typical of west Devon,
 there is an internal stair in the north-west corner.  It is thought to have been expensive to build compared to the rest of the building. . 
The porch dates from the late 15c / early 16c and is plain except for carved bosses in the roof including a Green Man  <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/301n5a568n">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/301n5a568n</a>  Inside is a fine Norman doorway into which a smaller 15c granite doorway has been fitted <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/YKFF70HhLL">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/YKFF70HhLL</a>

Inside is a continuous nave and small chancel / sanctuary, &amp; north aisle under Waggon roofs with bosses carved in foliage patterns: the nave and aisle roofs are 15c / 16c but the roof of the chancel was replaced in the 19c restoration.
The simple 13c octagonal granite octagonal font survives 

At the east end of this north aisle the area below the window has been cut away, probably for the reredos of a side altar, and there is a simple square recess with a piscina to the south of it,. 
On the south side of the chancel on the wall is a carved male head, bearded and open-mouthed, wearing a crown or coronet. <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/1V0bFG8922">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/1V0bFG8922</a> –  It may have been a corbel supporting one end of the rood beam of the 13c church –( the opposite corbel would have gone when the north aisle was added)
On the east wall to the right of the altar are traces of wall painting.
In the sanctuary, the 1925 oak panelling and 1942 communion rails are the best wooden furnishings in the church.  <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/764oz42828">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/764oz42828</a>
The rest are all very simply made in pitch pine, and date from the 1893 restoration which brought about the destruction not only of the screen but also of 16c oak benches with carved ends, carrying various devices including the arms of the Cloberry family: some fragments of mediaeval stained glass also vanished from the east window of the aisle.  They included a figure of the Virgin and the Cloberry coat of arms. 
A 19c watercolour exists illustrating the interior as it was before 1893 shows the screen with boards mounted above it carrying the royal arms, creed and commandments, the box pews and earlier benches, all sadly replaced in 1893 .  The font was at that time topped by an unusual cover with panelled doors and an ogee-shaped carved open top.  <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/3neNJkMyf1">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/3neNJkMyf1</a>

The stairs to the now lost medieval screen are blocked <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/9D9GM0vBgE">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/9D9GM0vBgE</a> -  part of the screen was still in existence in 1849, but was swept away in 1893 and a new screen put in its place. This,
described by Dr WG Hoskins as an ‘atrocity’, has now vanished in its turn. 

The organ is a small chamber organ; which may have been
converted from a barrel organ  Alternatively it may have come
from one of the neighbouring big houses.  <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/4m9S4q610Q">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/4m9S4q610Q</a>

There were 6 bells in 1553 reduced to 4 in 1827 with a new Treble added , inscribed: 
Treble &quot;Mears &amp; Stainbank, Founders London;  When I call follow me 1927&quot;
2nd *I mean to make it understoo altho' I'm little, I am good 1827&quot;
3rd &quot;+Squire Arundel the great my whole expence did raaise, not shall our tongues abate to celebrate his praise+ W and JT 1827&quot; 
4th &quot;+This peal was recast by W &amp; J Taylor Oxford  Ad 1827&quot;
5th &quot;+Call a solemn assembly+ W: and J:T:Oxon 1827&quot;.
Tenor +Wm Jeffery and Walter Weeks C Wardens who gave ten pounds to these bells&quot;
The weight of the tenor is about 7 hundredweight;   The bells were hung in an oak frame by Harry Stokes of Woodbury in 1913; the treble is in a cast-iron frame.
The much esteemed Squire Arundel was the owner of the Lifton estate, and also in 1827 he gave £50 towards the recasting of nearby Lifton’s bells by the same founder 

There are some slate memorials: 
&quot;Here lyethe the bodye of John Coumbe buryed the 16 of November beinge 6 score years of age anno domini 1604&quot;.
On the east wall of the porch is a well carved tablet with a clock-dial at the top, its single hand pointing at noon, to Richard Coumbe 1743, in which the carver ran out of space and some of the words run into the border, using very small lettering.
&quot;Reader beneath this stone doth lye
One who in his best strength did die
When death presents his fatal hand
Who can his Conquering power withstand
Grim death soon Summon’d him away
And his Sun set even at noon day&quot;

A badly worn and broken slate slab, its border reads:
&quot;Here lies ye Body of Anne y e wife of John Keall of this Parish who was Buried y e 21 day of March Anno Dom. 1730 Aged 22&quot;.  The verse in the middle sadly not all legible.
There was formerly a ledger slab to another Robert Combe and his wife of 1692, in the floor of the aisle, now no longer visible.

St Nonna’s was vested in The Churches Conservation Trust, under which the building has been put into good structural order

Picture with thanks - copyright CCT <a href="https://www.visitchurches.org.uk/visit/church-listing/st-nonnas-bradstone.html" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.visitchurches.org.uk/visit/church-listing/st-nonnas-b...</a>
bradstone church devon