A report written by Dr Clive Rouse in 1978 stirred the parish to take the initiative to try and find funds to restore and conserve the wall paintings. English Heritage, The Devon Historic Churches Trust, The Council for the Care of Churches and the Esmee Charitable Trust all made generous grants to aid the work. The conservation team was lead by Anna Hulbert. Her team started work in 1982 to very good effect, turning cement washed walls into the much brighter patchwork quilt of colour that is now seen. The very detailed work has been done with pains-taking patience, one person may have taken as long as five weeks to uncover and consolidate just one square metre of paintings.
The paintings probably date from a period 1630 – 1680; it is not possible to date them exactly as no records exist of the order for the paintings, the artist or the cost.

 THE NORTH WALL  The figures represent the prophets. From left to right they are 1?, 2?, 3 Isaiah, 4 Ezekial, 5 Jonah, 6 Micah, 7 Hosea, 8 Malachae, 9 Job, 10 Zakarias, 11 Joel, 12 Zephania,13 Moses, 14 Obadiah, 15 Amos, 16 Haggai, 17 Nahum, 18 Habakkuk,19 Nehamiah.
The circular painting depicts the offering of Isaac as a sacrifice, the text is 1 Samuel 9: 22 ‘Behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams’. (Spot the deliberate mistake! The text is actually from 1 Samuel 15: 22.)
The other texts are ECL 5: 1 ‘Keep thy foot when though goest to the house of God and be more ready to hear than to give for the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they do evil’, and 1 Corinthians 6: 9,10… ‘Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the     Kingdom of God.’
 

 THE SOUTH WALL has the least detail remaining. The figures above the windows depict St James the Great with his black hat, our Lord Jesus with the halo and ‘the bald man in shades of pink and red probably holding a scroll or at least with black folds of drapery, seated on a yellow hill’ is probably St Peter.
The texts are Hebrews 10: 24,25 “Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to do good works not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is”, and Hebrews 13: 2       ‘ Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels     unawares’. These texts appear in the left-hand box. The other box contains the text form Matthew 6: 33 ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.
 

 THE EAST WALL (NORTH) has a passage below the window COLOS 4: 2 ‘Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving’.

 THE WEST WALL   -  Only fragments of paint remain

THE NAVE  -  There are traces of colour under the lime wash. There are no plans to uncover these areas.

THE EAST WALL (SOUTH) depicts the military scene of ‘David and Goliath’ with their armies and camps in the background. The text above is Hebrews 11: 32,33,34 ‘Who through faith subdued kingdoms and turned to flight the armies of the aliens.’ In the text there is a piece of missing plaster, note the deep red colour of the plaster in relief, whilst conservation work was been done Anna and her team discovered a set of medieval paintings behind the 17^th Century ones.