Stoke Damerel is the oldest church in the Plymouth area. There was possibly a building on the site before the time of the Norman Conquest, and documentary evidence for its existence dates back to the 13th century.
The earliest visible part of the present day church is the tower which was built in the 15th century. Most of the rest of the building dates from the 18th century.
Officially the church is not dedicated to any saint, but two early carved figures now in the South Porch are believed to represent St Andrew and St Mary who may have some special connection with the church.
The population of Stoke Damerel grew rapidly at the beginning of the 18th century due to the building of the Dockyard. Soon the church became too small for all the people who wished to worship there, so it had to be enlarged. In 1715 a new aisle was added on the North side, and in 1750 it was extended to the South and a further new aisle was added. Unusually, the nave is now wider than it is long.
As this building work was carried out for the benefit of Dockyard employees, the Admiralty was asked to help pay for the work. No money was forthcoming but, according to tradition, payment was given in kind, and a variety of components from ships were used in the construction. This may be so, or it may be that Dockyard labourers were used for the work, and they used building techniques they had learned in shipbuilding, which produced similar results.
The church is known to have had four bells in 1553, but by 1788 three of these were cracked. The congregation wished to replace them with a peal of six bells but the rector wanted them to be recast into a single tenor bell because ‘six bells would be productive of more idleness and drunkenness than is in the parish already………’!
He was overruled and the new bells were first rung as King George III drove past in 1789. These bells were replaced, again, by a peal of eight smaller bells in 1977.
The church at Stoke Damerel has developed over more than thousand years from a small rural chapel, though its heyday which coincided with that of the Dockyard, to its present position as a major city church with a wealth of unique historical and architectural interest.
Stoke Damerel is the oldest church in the Plymouth area. There was possibly a building on the site before the time of the Norman Conquest, and documentary evidence for its existence dates back to the 13th century.
The earliest visible part of the present day church is the tower which was built in the 15th century. Most of the rest of the building dates from the 18th century.
Officially the church is not dedicated to any saint, but two early carved figures now in the South Porch are believed to represent St Andrew and St Mary who may have some special connection with the church.
The population of Stoke Damerel grew rapidly at the beginning of the 18th century due to the building of the Dockyard. Soon the church became too small for all the people who wished to worship there, so it had to be enlarged. In 1715 a new aisle was added on the North side, and in 1750 it was extended to the South and a further new aisle was added. Unusually, the nave is now wider than it is long.
As this building work was carried out for the benefit of Dockyard employees, the Admiralty was asked to help pay for the work. No money was forthcoming but, according to tradition, payment was given in kind, and a variety of components from ships were used in the construction. This may be so, or it may be that Dockyard labourers were used for the work, and they used building techniques they had learned in shipbuilding, which produced similar results.
The church is known to have had four bells in 1553, but by 1788 three of these were cracked. The congregation wished to replace them with a peal of six bells but the rector wanted them to be recast into a single tenor bell because ‘six bells would be productive of more idleness and drunkenness than is in the parish already………’!
He was overruled and the new bells were first rung as King George III drove past in 1789. These bells were replaced, again, by a peal of eight smaller bells in 1977.
The church at Stoke Damerel has developed over more than thousand years from a small rural chapel, though its heyday which coincided with that of the Dockyard, to its present position as a major city church with a wealth of unique historical and architectural interest.
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