A Short History Of The Church In Crediton And What We Think The Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) Surveys Might Reveal

Crediton Church has a history that is as long as that of any church in Devon, including Exeter Cathedral. It can be traced continuously in written records back to the C8th, as confirmed  by the Crediton Charter of 739AD.

BEFORE THE NORMAN CONQUEST

It is conceivable that a church existed in Crediton in the C7th and that evidence of the building might be found – we know that St Boniface (C680 – 754AD), who was born in the area to a Christian family, must have worshipped somewhere.

The Bodleian Library holds an apparently genuine copy (from just after the Conquest) of a charter of 739AD, by which Aethelheard, king of the West Saxons, granted land to Forthere, Bishop of Sherborne for the foundation of a monastery at Crediton. This was almost certainly sited in the area of the present church and its site might be found by the surveys.

The Diocese of Sherborne was split into three smaller dioceses in the early 900's: a reduced Sherborne, Wells and a separate see for Devon and Cornwall. Crediton was chosen as the site for the cathedral for the latter - probably in part because St Boniface had been born locally and in part because of the presence of the monastery. It is possible that the monastery building was used (and enlarged) for the cathedral but the site of Crediton cathedral has never been identified. It could well be that the cathedral was sited where the collegiate church was later built, but our surveys might reveal this.

In 1046, Bishop Leofric was appointed to the sees of both Devon and Cornwall. He quickly decided that the cathedral should be moved to the larger, more lively and culturally active community of Exeter. The reason he gave in a letter to Edward the Confessor for suggesting the move and one repeated in the foundation charter of Exeter Cathedral, was that Exeter was more easily defended from marauding Danes than Crediton, which was certainly true, but Leofric confided to Pope Benedict IX that his main motive for the shift was that he didn't want to be stuck in a "mere village", as he described eleventh century Crediton. He didn't think it a fit place for the cathedral he planned!

BETWEEN THE NORMAN CONQUEST AND THE REFORMATION

Crediton had lost the see, but the Bishop of Exeter retained his palace there - a little to the north-east of Holy Cross – and his lands around the town (such palaces were always sited very close to cathedral buildings, so the fact that it was built here lends great weight to the proposition that the Saxon cathedral was sited in the area of the present church)  The church survived, though not in its original building. Possibly as a sop for losing its cathedral status, Crediton was created a collegiate church. The construction of a Norman church on the present site was begun in the early 1100's. The collegiate church was initially staffed by 18 canons with 18 vicars, although lack of funds meant that this number of canons was soon reduced to 12.

The Norman font of Holy Cross

Like the cathedral before it, the collegiate church was always completely secular - none of the canons or vicars lived the communal life of monks. The college had its own officers, its own church court, and eventually, closer to the Reformation, its own dean.

Such a society would inevitably have needed a complex of ecclesiastical and secular buildings to live life; hopefully we will discover many of these.  In fact we know where the vicars were housed - the buildings were only demolished in the late C19th - and there is good evidence that senior clergy also lived nearby - Dean Street is within 50 metres of the churchyard.

The Romanesque church was extended in the late C13th by the addition of the Lady Chapel and the Chapter House and in the C15th large parts of the structure were rebuilt in Perpendicular Gothic style. Holy Cross is a massive parish church (67m long) and unusually shaped, its eastern wing being a little longer than its nave to accommodate the additional worship and study areas needed by up to 36 priests. The surveys may enable us to work out the building sequence of the church with some accuracy, particularly the boundaries of the Romanesque church, whether its east end was an apse, the dimensions of the Romanesque nave and whether a chapter house existed before the late C13th.

The Lady Chapel to the right and the Chapter House To the left were both build in the second half of the C13th

The church became an important regional centre for prayer and for the making of offerings (which brought indulgences). It was also visited by the sick in search of cures. These visitors would need accommodation and other facilities. We could well find evidence of these.

Exeter Cathedral brass of Canon William Langeton (d 1413) who bequeathed funds for the rebuilding of Holy Cross

There were a large number of clerical deaths in Devon during the Plague of 1348/9, probably around half of all priests died. The surveys could reveal evidence of mass burials in the churchyard. Records indicate that before the Plague, a full complement of canons, vicars and choir members existed in Holy Cross, but that after the mid-fourteenth century, filling any vacancies became a great deal more difficult.

view of the nave of Holy Cross rebuilt in the early C15th

Through a large part of the fourteenth century bishops describe the Norman/Early English church, especially the nave, as being in a state of disrepair. Their pleas for things to be put right were ignored until the early fifteenth century when the church received a number of bequests including a large one from Canon William Langeton, a close relative of Bishop Stafford, and a Prebendary of Crediton, who died in 1413 and whose brass is next to Stafford's tomb in Exeter Cathedral. In his will he described the Norman nave of the church as being "now nearly levelled to the ground."

His bequest, and others of around the same time, brought enough money for a complete rebuilding of the nave and chancel areas, which started in the early years of the fifteenth century. Mid-Devon was never as rich an area of England as wool producing Somerset, less than 35 miles away and its cloth-making industry was still in its infancy. Great church building depended on generous funding being available. The Perpendicular Gothic rebuilding of Crediton Collegiate Church created a church which though impressive in scale is architecturally fairly modest.

THE REFORMATION AND AFTER

More damage was done to English churches during the Reformation than at any other time. It is likely that most of the mediaeval  stained glass of Holy Cross was destroyed then and much of its interior splendour was lost forever. Some evidence of this iconaclasm might be revealed by the surveys.

The collegiate churches were dissolved between 1545 and 1549 and Crediton's was "surrendered" to Henry VIII in May 1545 and in September of that year, the church and all its lands were granted to Sir Thomas Darcy, who returned them to Henry in August, 1546 in exchange for lands elsewhere. Shortly afterwards the parishioners of Crediton entered into successful negotiations with the crown for the purchase of the collegiate church which was then threatened with demolition (like other collegiate churches, such as Great Malvern). These were completed in the spring of 1547, when the town paid the sum of £200 to the king. The clergy of the former collegiate church received very adequate pensions. In April 1547, Edward VI, who had succeeded Henry VIII in January, signed a charter (confirmed by Elizabeth in 1559) which, in acknowledging the receipt of the money paid to his father, created a new organisation for the governance of the church. This was a corporation of 12 governors to administer the Parish Church and its endowments.. A charter transferred title to the church buildings to the governors.

THE CIVIL WAR AND AFTER

plaque of 1909 commemorating the millenium of the founding of Credition Cathedral

Crediton was under the control of both King and Parliament during the Civil War (there are some interesting relics of this time in the Governors' Room), but the church survived intact - most of the iconoclasm it suffered was during the Reformation. Evidence of superficial Civil War damage has been found during the restoration of tombs, the surveys might reveal something more profound.

Towards the end of the eighteenth century the mediaeval wooden vault of the nave and choir was rotting from neglect, and in 1788 this was replaced by plastered ceilings.

drawing of cottages and pub formerly on SE corner of churchyard by Neil Bowen

In the early years of the C20th the row of old cottages and the Ring of Bells pub in the south-east corner of the churchyard were demolished to create more space – much evidence of these buildings might be found by the survey.

The Church of the Holy Cross and the Mother of Him who hung thereon, Crediton, is listed with four stars in Simon Jenkin’s “England’s Thousand Best Churches”, and is visited by thousands of people from all over the world each year.

aerial view of the Boniface Centre, completed 1991

CONCLUSION

The heritage of the church in Crediton is both very ancient and very rich. In the past six months we have tried to identify the site of the Saxon cathedral using ground penetrating radar, the most modern method available to us. Although the overall results of the surveys (which were funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund) were a little disappointing, they do show that it is likely that the Church of the Holy Cross and the Mother of Him who Hung Thereon was built on the site of the Saxon cathedral.