Churches of the British Isles

St Giles & St Nicholas Parish Church of Sidmouth is at the north tip of Church Street and is visible far down that street, with Amyatts Terrace on its western side. A church has existed here since the late 1100s. The Perpendicular tower was added during a rebuild in the 1400s, with a ring of ten bells. The present church building is a Victorian second rebuild, designed by William White in 1859-1860. The organ chamber and vestries are grouped around the east end.

It consists of a central nave with clerestory and aisles, short transepts, and a chancel, also with aisles. The stained glass is of excellent quality, mostly dating from the 1860s and with some vibrant colours. The Ward & Hughes west window was donated by Queen Victoria as a memorial to her father, the duke of Kent. The Lady Chapel contains a fragment of medieval glass from the old church which depicts the five wounds of Christ. The organ was installed in the late 1800s.

Sidmouth Congregational Chapel is on the south side of Chapel Street, midway along its length. It was founded in 1846, but perhaps only built by 1850. The OS 1892-1914 map shows the car park on the chapel's east flank as a burial ground. The chapel features natural stone elevations under a pitched slate roof with a school room at the rear. It became Sidmouth United Reformed Church at the 1972 union. In 2025 it housed a toy and model museum after closure by 2017.

Sidmouth Wesleyan Methodist Chapel is on the western side of the High Street, directly opposite the entrance to Mill Street. The chapel was founded in 1837 and is listed in White's for 1850. At the Methodist union of 1932 it became Sidmouth Methodist Church. In the twenty-first century a glass-and-steel modernist extension was added on the chapel's northern flank which offers a light and airy, architecturally-sympathetic entrance to the still-working chapel itself.

Old Meeting Unitarian Chapel, Sidmouth, is at the south-west corner of the High Street and All Saints Road. It was built in 1710 by Presbyterians who had formed in 1662 following the restoration of Charles II. At this time it was located on the outer edge of Sidmouth, as a Free Christian Chapel. The buildings were extended in the 1880s with Victorian Gothic 'improvements' which included an entrance porch, a stained glass window, and a tiled roof to replace thatch.

Four photos on this page by P L Kessler, one kindly contributed by Guy Fogwill via the 'History Files: Churches of the British Isles' Flickr group, and one copyright © Chris Allen via Geograph, reused under a cc licence. Additional information from White's Devonshire Directory of 1850, and from A History of the Presbyterian & General Baptist Churches in the West of England, Jerom Murch, 1835.