St Nicholas's Church, Combe Raleigh, Devon

I saw this lovely building just before Christmas 2016. There was a Christmas Festival inside the church, which some friends were visiting, so I took the opportunity to go along with them and have a wander around the outside to take some photos. I only took a few interior ones but I did manage to scoff a mince pie and partake of some mulled wine instead! 

A Grade II* Listed Building that's largely early 15th century with a 14th century tower, it's constructed in flint rubble and dressings of both Bathstone and Beerstone (the latter from Beer Quarry just above the village of Beer). Like many old churches there was a fair amount of restoration during the 19th century but there are also signs that there was some substantial rebuilding in the 15th century too. It was possibly Saxon in origin and rebuilt around it.

Not only had I completely lost the plot since then, I never even had one to begin with, and knew absolutely nothing about this church and its layout. However, gleaning information from the British Listing, these photos below appear to show the south-west porch. According to the description the one on the left (first photo) is the main entrance and although the one on the right has a simple door - seen in the photo above - it might be kept locked and not used as an entrance. 

 

The gorgeous two-light window on the west side of the right-hand porch above and close-up below.

It's interesting to see the different styles of windows throughout. The one above is a Gothic Perpendicular style with a flat head and drip mould; a style which began in the second half of the 14th century. The windows each side of the porch are also perpendicular in style but with a round arch on the left and another flat headed window to the right, albeit with a different kind of decoration at the top of each light.

There are several doors. As well as these two on the porch side, there's also one on the north-east side.

 

And one on the tower, along with another perpendicular window.

Opposite the porch is this table tombstone. I haven't been able to discover anything about it but it does look extremely old and is probably commensurate with the early building.

And looking across the churchyard is a lovely view of nearby thatched cottages with the hills beyond.

And to finish off with, just the few photos I took inside. There were a lot of Christmas trees and several people so I didn't get much in the way of interior details. 

There were some nice windows, though...

...including this gorgeous tiny window with a simple candle decoration.

And there we have it. It's funny because I wasn't going to add this but I recently reviewed my photos and decided it might be worthwhile after all. I also really enjoyed composing the article and gleaning what information I could make of the little I'd found too, so it was well worth having a go at it. Cheers. :)