Parish Church
The church of St Andrew has the oldest stained-glass window in Devon, excepting Exeter Cathedral; it is 600 years old. The building was probably built at various times between 1290 and 1340; it is recorded that an archpresbytery was founded here in 1333 and the north transept appears to be the earliest part of the church while the south aisle is the latest, perhaps 15th century.
Features of interest include the Norman font, an unusual altar stone, benches having benchends carved with traceried arches, and an early medieval monument to a knight and lady (probably of the Ferrers family, Latinised as Ferrariis). In the church are two other monuments: another recess with effigy of a knight, and a tomb chest of the 1520s, perhaps for Robert Willoughby, 2nd Baron Willoughby de Broke (d. 1521/2). The church saw the death, in 1821, of the antiquarian draughtsman Charles Alfred Stothard who was killed on falling while making a tracing from a window: his tombstone is in the churchyard.
Read more about this topic: Bere Ferrers
Famous quotes containing the words parish and/or church:
“When the deep purple falls over sleepy garden walls, and the stars begin to flicker in the sky,”
—Mitchell Parish (1901–1993)
“A church that can never have done with excommunicating Christ while it exists! Away with your broad and flat churches, and your narrow and tall churches! Take a step forward, and invent a new style of out-houses. Invent a salt that will save you, and defend our nostrils.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)