Lewtrenchard Church was originally dedicated to St Petrock, but nothing of that early building survives. Of the church rebuilt in 1261 only a portion of the west wall remains. The present structure is largely the result of a Perpendicular rebuilding of 1520. In the nineteenth century the church became closely associated with the Baring and Baring-Gould families, who refurnished and altered it extensively. Charles Baring-Gould, who became parson in 1832, introduced new benches, a pulpit and altar cloth, and applied the family colours of blue and mustard yellow. His nephew, Sabine Baring-Gould, travelled widely and brought back furnishings from Switzerland, France, Germany and Belgium. He reassembled the fragments of the 1520 rood screen, which had been demolished, using an historic painting as a guide. The result is large in scale and dominates the interior. He also reinstated bench ends and poppy heads that had been removed, creating a mixture of original and restored work.
The church contains numerous memorial tablets to the Baring and Gould families. Sabine added to these by rescuing memorials from Staverton Church in Derbyshire, where they had been discarded during a modernisation programme. John Betjeman later implied criticism of this transfer, apparently unaware of the circumstances. The interior view towards the east end shows the altar painting, a copy of a work by Paul Deschwanden in Freiburg Church. The timber eagle lectern is from Brittany. The pulpit and benches were installed by Charles Baring-Gould. The restored rood screen spans the church with gallery, tabernacle work and cresting. Looking west, the church presents an interior shaped by the attention of the Baring-Gould family despite the small size of the parish. A brass plate on the stalls records their reconstruction in 1904. Poppy heads on some benches appear to be original, although there are signs of restoration. One bench end bears the initials “BG”.
Sabine reinstated, repaired, restored and copied bench ends, making it difficult to distinguish medieval from later work. Some bench ends are likely to be early sixteenth century. One shows St Michael in armour, trampling a dragon underfoot. Another, depicting a pope-like figure, appears ancient but shows clear signs of restoration, particularly on the surround and on the orb and cross held in the hand.
The church is built of stone rubble with a slate roof and Dartmoor “broad and narrow” quoins. The plan comprises nave and chancel, north aisle, west tower, south porch and a north-west vestry. There is evidence of rebuilding of the gabled chancel. A small two-light granite east window under a square-headed hoodmould is set high in the east wall and is probably early twentieth century. The south side of the chancel retains the remains of an old timber wall plate. A five-light square-headed Perpendicular granite window on the south side of the chancel has sixteenth-century jambs and two original mullions; the other mullions appear to have been replaced and the window may have been enlarged in the late nineteenth century.
The nave has Dartmoor quoins at the east end only and a short buttress at the west end. A change in the wall plate suggests rebuilding to the east of the porch. To the east of the porch is a four-light arched granite Perpendicular window with hoodmould and label stops. The three-bay unbuttressed north aisle has a three-light late fifteenth-century Perpendicular granite east window with hoodmould; the east wall has been partially rebuilt. The aisle has three two-light square-headed windows of large irregular freestone. A three-light late fifteenth-century west window to the aisle has a hoodmould.
The west tower is small, three-stage, battlemented and unbuttressed, with Dartmoor quoins, chamfered plinth and obelisk corner pinnacles. The west doorway has hollow-chamfered jambs and a basket arch with a stone relieving arch above. A three-light nineteenth- or twentieth-century Perpendicular west window has a hoodmould and label stops. The stages of the tower are marked by moulded strings. There is no stair turret. On the north face a one-light arched chamfered opening lights the bell-ringers’ stage. Belfry openings on each face consist of two slightly pointed chamfered lights with slate louvres. A late nineteenth- or early twentieth-century flat-roofed vestry with parapet occupies the north-west corner between aisle and tower. The large gabled south porch is faced in granite ashlar and has a chamfered round-headed outer doorway with stops. The porch contains granite benches and a late nineteenth- or early twentieth-century wagon roof with ribs and round bosses.
The interior has a three-bay double-chamfered north arcade, with one bay opening to the chancel, carried on octagonal piers and capitals with alternate faces hollow-chamfered. The timber chancel arch is asymmetrical, adjusted to the narrower width of the chancel on the south side. The nave and chancel have a ceiled wagon roof of late nineteenth- or early twentieth-century date, with ribs and shallow triangular bosses. The aisle has an elliptical roof of similar design and date. The tower arch is unmoulded. The interior walls are plastered. The small octagonal font, with deep bowl on octagonal stem and base, is probably early sixteenth century.
Some early sixteenth-century rectangular bench ends, and one frontal attached to nineteenth-century benches, carry carvings including a profile head in a medallion, symbols of the Passion and St Michael weighing souls while vanquishing a dragon. Some sixteenth-century bench ends in the north chancel chapel include one with fleur-de-lys cresting. Other carved bench ends date from the late nineteenth century. The clergy stalls in the chancel were reconstructed in 1904–5, incorporating early sixteenth-century panels of arabesques and profile heads in medallions, flamboyant blind tracery probably not of English origin, and well-carved poppy heads.
The rood screen dominates the church. The medieval screen was broken up in 1883 by Baring-Gould’s grandfather, but enough fragments were recovered by Sabine to allow a reconstruction. The work was supervised by his cousin, Bligh Bond, between 1889 and 1915. The present screen is of high quality but shows little visible medieval fabric. Paintings on the gallery frontal are largely by Margaret Rowe, Baring-Gould’s daughter. The pier of the aisle, which projects through the screen, is encased in carving. The medieval doorways to the loft are blocked; the lower doorway is chamfered with an ogival head.
The drum pulpit stands on a wine-glass stem and is modelled on the reconstructed medieval pulpit at Kenton. It was carved by the Pinwill sisters and has nodding ogees above painted panels of the evangelists. An early twentieth-century parclose screen, based on a sixteenth-century model, separates the north chancel chapel. Other fittings reflect Baring-Gould’s taste and travels. The timber eagle lectern, probably sixteenth century, comes from Brittany. A late fifteenth- or early sixteenth-century North Flemish triptych, probably by Cornelius Engelbert, hangs in the church. Above the altar is a duplicate of Paul Deschwanden’s “Adoration of the Magi” from Freiburg.
In a recess in the south chancel wall is a recumbent effigy of a sleeping child, dated 1879 and attributed to Knittel of Freiburg, commemorating Beatrice Baring-Gould. On the north wall of the aisle are numerous seventeenth-century slate and brass memorials to members of the Baring-Gould family, some rescued from Staverton Church in 1877. One brass, commemorating Margaret Baring-Gould (died 1662), includes the epitaph: “Death dartes at all, spares not a Margaret / Although a pearle in Gould most neatly set /”. Slate memorials on the exterior south wall and one above the porch doorway may also have come from Staverton. A painting of the Crucifixion by Lavidiere hangs on the north wall.
The south window of the chancel contains late nineteenth-century glass incorporating four early sixteenth-century evangelists’ heads and an Agnus Dei. The east window, in a sixteenth-century style and said to be by Carl de Bouche of Munich, was erected in 1914. The Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould, squire and parson at Lewtrenchard from 1881 until his death in 1924, is buried in the churchyard. He was a High Churchman, antiquarian and prolific author of fiction and theological works, and collected Westcountry folk songs. His criticisms of contemporary church restorations make his own work at Lewtrenchard of particular interest.
