St John the Baptist
Chancel Screen – Photograph (PWDRO 244/4 & 244/5); 1911 and 1912
This richly carved screen, very much in the traditional style, runs across the nave and north aisle. The nave section is dedicated to Mary Olivia Jenkins (d. 1906), identified by the guide (Instow, undated) as the wife of the Revd W. T. L. Jenkins, Rector, and was installed in 1911 (North Devon Gazette, 1912). The north portion was added in 1912 and commemorates Chamberlain Henry Hinchcliff (died 1891) and his wife Matilda (died 1911) and was the gift of their daughters. Plans for the screen by E. Sedding exist (DHC 1626B/P/35-41), as well as a faculty for the north section (PWDRO 2423/4). The plans show several different versions of the screen before one was agreed.
Choir Stalls – Newspaper article (Western Morning News, 1914) Sedding & Wheatly architects; 1914
These choir stalls are not represented in the photographs at PWDRO, but their dedication is recorded in a newspaper report. This states that some ‘very finely-carved oak stalls’ with ‘bold poppy-heads, all varied in pattern’ are ‘an immense improvement to the church’ (Ibid. p. 8).
Sources
DHC 1626B/P/35-41 Plans. Instow. Screen.
Instow (undated) St John Baptist Instow. Historical Guide.
North Devon Gazette (1912) Instow Church Chancel Screen. 28 May p. 2.
PWDRO 244/4 Photograph Album. Various. Woodcarvings.
PWDRO 244/5 Photograph Album. Various. Woodcarvings.
PWDRO 2423/4 Catalogue. Devon and Cornwall Faculty Petitions held at Devon Record Office A-I.
Western Morning News (1914) Instow Church New Choir Stalls. 16 April p. 8.