You’ll find this Methodist church along Fore Street in Ivybridge, Devon.

Built between 1874 and 1876 the church is Gothic in its architectural style. The architects were Messrs Norman and Hine from Plymouth. The building contractor was Blatchford and Sons of Tavistock. Built predominantly out of Plymouth limestone with Portland stone and Red Mansfield stone for the detailing. Bath stone was used internally. The cost of building the church and acquiring the land cost, at that time, £5000:00. That’s roughly £740,000:00 in today’s money. That’s a bargain considering how much it would really cost to build a church like this these days. The cost for the new church was entirely met by John Allen who was a prominent wealthy businessman that owned the paper mills at Stowford, just up the road from here. We were initially contacted by the church to look at one of the stone crosses perched high up on a gable end. A scaffold was already in place as they were having some roofing works done and noticed that this particular cross had become unstable. We were asked if we could make it safe.

The whole cross has been cut and dressed entirely out of one piece Portland stone, including its base which formed the top of the gable’s apex. Although the cross had a bit of movement in it, there was a one inch thick iron dowel set into the base that fixed it into the stonework below. You could see a movement crack along the base within the bedding joint.

To stop any further movement, all the loose mortar within the  joint was cut out until we were happy that it had all been removed.

Once the bed joint had been thoroughly cleaned out it was packed with slate and epoxy resin and then the joint was finished off with a lime based Portland stone mortar mix.

When everything had set, there was no more movement.

Being up so high we got to see some views of the surrounding area that you don’t often get to see.

During 1986 and 1990 a panel of The New World Tapestry depicting Roanoke Island in 1586 was worked on within this church.

The New World Tapestry was at that time the largest stitched embroidery in the world. It depicts the English colonisations in North America, Guyanas, and Bermuda between the years 1583 and 1642, when the English Civil War began. Designed by Tom Mor, work began on this tapestry in 1977 with the first stich taking place in 1980. It took a further twenty years to complete with the last stich completed by the then Prince Charles in 2000. Its entire length measures 267 feet long.