Carved and partly-gilded oak, English, c1651-5

Octagonal sounding-board, to be suspended above the pulpit from four chains united in a ring which is held from a wall bracket. The drum like unit is of panelled construction, with eight stiles each of which extends in a stub above the upper cornice with dentils. It is clear that finials (now missing) were previously attached to the tops of the stiles. The lower edge of the ‘drum’ is a moulded cornice, with a plain flat fillet running along the underside which protrudes on both sides in a narrow lip. The twin cornices act as rails containing a frieze of eight main panels, each carved in the solid in low relief and regilded against a black painted ground; each panel has a central vase, mask on a cartouche (one plain), which is flanked by scrolling stems and fleshy flowers and buds. The horizontal underside of the drum is plain panelled while the interior face of each of the eight frieze panels is carved in low relief with strapwork. The top side of the drum shows a frame of H form, with 4 regularly placed mortices. It has been suggested that a cresting sat within the ‘well’ of the top side.

Bought from Mr E.W. Savory 4 Rodney Place, Clifton, Bristol for £25 'English 17th century (Restored)'. It had been removed from St. Michael and All Angels' Church, Great Torrington, during a restoration in 1864, after which it languished in a builder's yard until it was spotted by a dealer and later sold to the V&A. (Registered files: T12629/05, T86729/1905; Mr Lehfeldt's Revise 3/XI/08)

Savory wrote to the museum (14/8/1905): 'I have just purchased the sounding-board of an old oak pulpit which was removed about forty years ago from Torrington Old Church in North Devon & which has been lying in a barn, untouched, ever since.... It is about 6 ft. in diameter, the carved portions of the panels having been gilded. It is interesting to note the carved tracery on the inside of the panels. I presume these were originally outside & were afterwards reversed & carved in Renaissance style...'

Condition at acquisition: 'Restorations: Six of the moulded boards on the inside of the top; all of the dentils except three; portions of mouldings.'

On long loan to St Michael's Church, Great Torrington (RF 60/114) from 1960 (some conservations took place shortly before the loan commenced). The loan was noted and illustrated in the Bideford and North Devon Weekly Gazette, July 1, 1960.

Context and references

The Pulpit
The sounding board is ensuite with the six-and-a-half sided pulpit of panelled oak (125cm height x 130cm diam.), partly gilded, which survives in the church, mounted on eight massive brackets which rest on an octagonal stone socle. Brass plaques record that the pulpit was restored 1938,1962 and c1988. Each of the eight sides displays a plain, arched panel, which are divided by a pair of narrow columns. Above the main panels is an architrave with carved and gilded panels which are carved in the solid, on a black painted ground; each has a central mask, divided by a projecting head (three young angelic, three youthful male angelic, two leonine). Above the frieze is a cornice with dentils on which a modern book tray has been mounted. The interior is plain panelled. Details such as dentils are glued. Panel width, mitre to mitre is 48.5cm.


Torrington Church - drawn in part from J.J. Alexander and W. R. Hooper, A History of Great Torrington in the County of Devon (1948))
The oldest elements of the church building are 14th century. Wolsey was granted the rectory in 1510-11, and again 1536. A small Tudor room (now used as a vestry) survives. Before the1651 explosion (see below) Cromwell heard the famous preacher John Howe in Torrington church. The structure that stands day was largely built (or perhaps ‘restored’ would be more accurate) in 1651 following a major explosion in 1646 during the battle of Torrington, when gunpowder stored in the church (then in the hands of parliamentary forces) exploded, killing many royalist prisoners who were being kept in the building, and it must be assumed, destroying the wooden fittings. Aside from the pulpit, and perhaps a communion table which is described as ‘17th century’ (Alexander and Hooper p33), there are no other obvious wooden furnishings from the restoration phase. (Some medieval bench ends may have been reused for the stalls). The earliest tomb appears to date from 1693. The pulpit was dated c1675, by Alexander and Hooper, apparently on stylistic counts. In the wardens accounts for 1716, appears the entry ‘pd Mr. Scott for Painting with Gold ye Pulpit of the Church and Varnishing it etc. 6.9 –‘ (Trans. Dev. Assoc., lxii, pp. 281ff. G.M.Doe)

Other References
See Murray's Guide to Devon on Torrington Church: 'Henry VIII gave the Church to Wolsey, who after holding the living for some years presented it to Christ Church, Oxford, in whose gift the living now is. Rebuilt in 1651. It contains the carved oak pulpit used by Howe, until his ejectment under the Act of Uniformity in 1662.'

See Doe (G. M.): 'Carved oak Sounding-Board from Pulpit of Great Torrington Church.' in 'Devon Notes and Queries,' Vol. VII, part VII, p. 241, 1913.

On loan to the Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Great Torrington, Devon

848-1905