St David's Church, Exeter

St David’s Church stands in the heart of Exeter, a Grade I listed building whose roots reach back to the late Anglo-Saxon period. The present structure was designed by W. D. Caröe and completed in 1900, replacing an earlier church begun in 1816. That earlier building had been erected in Greek Doric style but was demolished when the new design took shape. John Betjeman called the finished church “the finest example of Victorian church architecture in the south west.” The churchyard holds the grave of Alexander Cavalie Mercer, a Waterloo veteran. The church’s interior centres on a fine organ installed in 1902 by Hele and Co. Its predecessor, built by William Thomas in 1817, had a largest pipe twelve feet long and seven inches wide. The Thomas organ was later moved to Sidmouth Methodist Church. Caröe’s design also preserves earlier fittings and furnishings from the 19th-century rebuilding. Visitors find a spacious nave under a high timber roof, with clear glass windows that fill the space with light. The organ case stands at the west end, its ranks of pipes rising above the congregation. The graveyard contains weathered headstones, including that of Mercer, whose stone records his military service. The church’s stone walls and steep roof give the interior a calm, uplifting atmosphere.