Churches of the British Isles

However, no one knows where this church was located or whether the present building even occupies the same site and some of its fabric. The first documented church building here was consecrated by Bishop Bronescombe in 1260. The community here was - and remains - relatively small (it still numbered less than five thousand in the early twenty-first century), so all they needed was their small, presumably attractive, brand new Plantagenet church building.

The land was purchased by Bishop John Grandisson in 1337 for a college of ecclesiastical canons. He wished their place of worship to mirror the cathedral he was building in the city of Exeter (see 'related links'), so he added his own grand designs to it, making it a spectacular miniature version of Exeter Cathedral. The structure had some of the attendant trappings of a monastery, with a chapter house, cloister and library, but collegiate churches were not monastic.

Collegiate churches were home to groups of ordained priests known as 'canons'. Grandisson's vision was of a centre of 'piety and learning'. The building has some design peculiarities however, leading some experts to believe that Grandisson's rebuild took into account older features which he may have wanted preserved - in itself quite an unusual prospect as such medieval rebuilds generally appear to be total. Grandisson's build has the air of being somewhat retro for its time.

The style of this imposing grey-stone structure is mainly Early English. It consists of two towers above transepts, plus the nave and aisles, and a Lady Chapel. The groining is later than Bishop Grandisson's work and the north aisle is in the Perpendicular style. The roof is very rich, with pendant decorations. The church remained collegiate between 1337-1545. Then the college was dissolved during Henry VIII's Reformation which also closed down most of the abbeys.

Generally more peaceful from the 1600s onwards, Ottery St Mary was home to the famous poet, Samuel Coleridge Taylor (1772-1834), his father being the vicar. The church interior was drastically restored in the mid-1800s by Butterfield and others. Today the town may be more famous for its adrenaline-fuelled 'Tar Barrels' event, with locals sprinting through crowded streets with a flaming barrel on their shoulders, and for the Harry Potter character of Ottery St Catchpole.

All photos on this page by P L Kessler & Janann Blanchard.