Colyton Devon
Church of St Andrew , Colyton Devon -  South porch with sun dial at the top 
There was a succession of Saxon churches here beginning around the year 700 AD.   Sometime around AD 744 a timber church was built to act as a minster / mother church for the area.   An late 10c stone cross is now on display inside.  <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/KXw855v0p9">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/KXw855v0p9</a>
In the late 12c a Norman church was built of stone on a cruciform layout with a central tower.   The first recorded vicar is Robert de la Hille of 1237 
Over the medieval period, the chancel was lengthened, the nave raised, side aisles added 
The present building is mainly 15c / early 16c retaining c1200 work in lower parts of the tower and chancel. 
It comprises of a nave, north and south aisles, chancel between north and south chapels and transepts and crossing tower with late 15c octagonal top stage
The upper part and north and south arcades of the nave were  rebuilt in 1765 and 1816 .  . 
The south porch at one time had a parvise, but when there was a gallery in the south aisle an exterior staircase was made to give access to the parvise, and from thence to the gallery. This gallery has now been removed, and the parvise is used as a small gallery looking into the south aisle.   The tower is reached through an exterior doorway to the south by means of a staircase and wooden gallery crossing the interior of the south aisle &quot;not adding to its beauty&quot;.  The 15c west window  reaching almost to the ground, the doorway forming part of the window; the doorway is old, but the tracery of the window has been replaced with new,  <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/s20Za47Ge7">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/s20Za47Ge7</a> the part taken out being preserved in the east end of the churchyard.
Lighting the nave are a pair of elegant brass chandeliers, installed in 1769.
The reredos, pulpit, and font are modern.
There are two stone screens enclosing the chapels at the ends of the aisles. The south one enclosing the Pole Chapel, is the best and was erected by Thomas Brerewood, vicar from 1524 to 1544 and has his coat of arms over the entrance.  He also built the still existing vicarage in 1529.  <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/37bk8c7Z6K">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/37bk8c7Z6K</a> 
The Jacobean stone screen on the north side encloses the Yonge Chapel.  <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/2891o62G94">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/2891o62G94</a>

The Pole chapel has many monuments to that family including  Mary Periam 1605 wife of Sir William Pole with her 3 boys &quot;born in one birth&quot; <a href="https://flic.kr/p/iKvVVM" rel="noreferrer nofollow">flic.kr/p/iKvVVM</a>.  Her husband was the only surviving son and heir of William Pole 1587 <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/n55yF2P958">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/n55yF2P958</a> by 2nd wife Katherine Popham  <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/52219527@N00/11650515273/">www.flickr.com/photos/52219527@N00/11650515273/</a> who also is here .  Between the chancel &amp; chapel  lying back to back are Sir John Pole 1658 &amp; wife / step sister Elizabeth Howe <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/364o308175">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/364o308175</a>

Now on the north side of the chancel is the elaborate tomb of Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Devon 1449 <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/hJwBa94375">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/hJwBa94375</a> grand daughter of John of Gaunt 
William Westover 1615, wife Elizabeth Ellacott &amp; their only child Margaret Drake also kneel on a wall monument <a href="https://flic.kr/p/iKw4Mj" rel="noreferrer nofollow">flic.kr/p/iKw4Mj</a>

The registers date from 1538, the original volumes have been preserved, and they appear to have been kept with great accuracy including a record the plague period  of  November 1645 to November 1646.
The Chantry-roll of 1547 records a chapel of St. Edmund in the village in which was a chantry founded by an Earl of Devon, and endowed with lands then valued at 8l. 3s. per annum; and a chapel within the manor of Whitford a mile from the parish church, in which was a chantry founded by the Marquis of Exeter, and endowed with lands, then valued at 5l. 12s. 4d. per annum. An estate consisting of chantry land was, after the Reformation, purchased by the Erle family,  Sir Walter Erle sold this estate in 1616 to the Samsons who also have modern memorials here.

Sadly the roofs of the nave and south aisle were destroyed by a fire in 1933.
colyton church devon