St Paul’s Church stands at the centre of Chudleigh Knighton, opposite the village school, its unusual flint‑and‑limestone exterior marking it out immediately from the parish churches of the surrounding district. The land for the church was consecrated in 1841 and the building itself in 1849, at which time it served as a chapel of ease for parishioners who had previously walked the three miles to Hennock. Known originally as Knighton Chapel, it reflects the ecclesiastical expansion of the early Victorian period, when new chapels were built to meet the needs of dispersed rural populations.
The architectural style is Early English, and the design is attributed to the young George Gilbert Scott, working in partnership with William Bonython Moffatt. This places St Paul’s among Scott’s earliest ecclesiastical works, contemporary with the period in which he was moving away from the utilitarian habits of his workhouse practice and beginning to adopt a more archaeological approach to Gothic. The interior was decorated and fitted in 1846 by the Revd. John Medley, later Bishop of Fredericton, whose interest in church architecture and liturgical propriety left a clear mark on the building.
The exterior is constructed of Plymouth limestone with Haldon flint, the rounded side of the flints set outward to create a distinctive knobbled surface. Flint churches in Norfolk present the knapped face; St Paul’s, as far as is known, is the only flint church in Devon, and the effect is striking. The plan consists of nave, chancel, and north and south transepts, with stepped triple lancets at both east and west ends, single lancets in the chancel walls, and paired lancets with a quatrefoil above in each transept. A bell‑turret rises from the west gable. The roof is finished with Staffordshire blue roll ridge tiles, salvaged from Chudleigh railway station at the time of its demolition by Colin Walker, a member of the PCC and former clerk of works at Canterbury Cathedral.
The churchyard entrance forms the village’s First World War memorial. The original gateposts were adapted to create a stone archway bearing the names of the men of Chudleigh Knighton who fell in the 1914–18 war, an arrangement both unusual and effective in its prominence. A further tablet inside the church commemorates three members of the Gibbs family killed in the Plymouth air raid of 29 April 1941.
By Order in Council of 26 February 1880, St Paul’s was assigned its own ecclesiastical district, consolidated from the parishes of Hennock, Kingsteignton and Bovey Tracey. The first incumbent was the Revd. Remorden Sandilands, whose memorial window stands above the door in the south transept. He was succeeded in 1891 by the Revd. F. G. Riley of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.
The interior has undergone several alterations. A faculty of 1876 authorised re‑seating and internal rearrangement, and in 1878 the Incorporated Society for Building Churches granted funds on condition that 220 seats be free and 43 rented. It was likely at this time that the gallery was added to increase capacity. The single bell, cast by John Taylor & Co. of Loughborough, was given in 1956 by Katherine Fellows in memory of her brothers.
A further faculty in 1961 permitted the replacement of the east window, the removal of the organ from the north transept to the gallery, and the enclosure of the choir vestry. The earlier east window glass was moved to the north transept. The new east window, designed by Henry Stammers and dedicated on 12 November 1961 in memory of Hugh and Hilda Yeoman of Pitt House, is a symbolic treatment of the Holy Trinity. The upper part shows the Hand of God, Christ in Glory, and the Holy Spirit as a dove; the lower part depicts groups of worshippers from different periods, arranged in coloured panels to suggest the text “in my Father’s house are many mansions.” The three saints in the base lights—St Francis of Assisi, St Hugh of Lincoln, and St Hilda of Whitby—reflect the patron saints of the Yeoman family.
The chancel windows commemorate members of the Chichester family of Stokelake: Caroline Chichester to the north of the altar and Arthur Chichester to the south. These, together with the memorials to the fallen of two world wars, give the interior a strong sense of continuity between the church and the life of the village it serves.
St Paul’s remains a modest but distinctive example of early Victorian ecclesiastical architecture, its unusual flint construction, disciplined Early English design, and later layers of memorial and liturgical history combining to create a building of quiet character. Its association with George Gilbert Scott places it within the early development of one of Britain’s most prolific architects, while its position at the heart of Chudleigh Knighton ensures that it continues to serve the community for which it was built.
