Church of St Mary the Virgin

There has been Christian worship in Ottery since Saxon times. The current church building was built from scratch in the astonishing time scale of 8 years, completed in 1345. It was commissioned by Bishop John de Grandisson as an imitation of Exeter Cathedral which accounts for each transept having its own tower. The specific purpose of the church was the service of a daily liturgy said by a college of 40 priests (canons), clerks and choristers and to support them in this work the church also had a cloister, chapter house, library and gatehouse to the south, as well as houses and a school for its community.

An extra aisle – known as The Dorset Aisle – was added in 1520 and has fantastic fan vaulting. A mere 25 years later at the Reformation the College was dissolved, the ancillary buildings were knocked down and the church became a parish church, stripped of much of its adornment. To replace the college of priests Henry VIII appointed 4 Governors, to which were added 8 more in 1552. The Governors were to be “of the most honest, best, discreetest and quietest of the Parishioners to be associated for their assistance” to deal mainly with financial matters.

The church was once more redesigned in the 19th C by William Butterfield. His alterations included lowering the floor level of the transepts, crossing and western part of the chancel to match that of the nave: the walls were scraped of plaster and cleaned. The ancient altar screen had been stripped of its statues and in 1934 sculptures were replaced.