Church History - Introduction : Part 2 : Part 3 :

Introduction.

Just under 50 years ago in the constant pursuit of fund raising for the upkeep of the Church, a little booklet was published priced 1/6d (71/2p) entitled "The History of the Church and Parish of St. Andrews, Colebrooke". This excellent little book was researched and written by Rev. Vyvyan Hope M.A. F.S.A. Rev. Hope who at that time had recently retired from Radley College, was secretary of Friends of Exeter Cathedral and Cathedral Receiver. He was an acknowledged authority on monumental brasses, heraldry and church architecture, and was devoting much of his time to the fabric and history of his beloved Cathedral. His sister Miss E. Hope had lived at Waterleat, Penstone for many years, and had served as secretary on the Parochial Church Council. Rev. Hope would spend some of his holidays from College at Waterleat, and it was during these vacations he became interested in the Church, and the Parish as a whole. In fact some of the P.C.C. Minutes are in his handwriting. He died after a long, fruitful "retirement" in 1976 at the age of 88.
It was with this background, that we approached (with some trepidation), the task of, what is best described as "updating" the Rev. Hope's booklet. The greater part of his work will remain as before with additions and deletions as necessary. There is also another 50 years of Parish and Church fabric changes to describe. Although since 1993 Copplestone is no longer a part of our Parish we have decided to retain all the references to it, and the Coplestone family, whose history is inextricably linked with Colebrooke.

June 2002.

THE CHURCH AND PARISH OF ST. ANDREW, COLEBROOKE DEVON

It is nearly fifty years since the Rev. Isidore Daimpre, a former Vicar, published "A Short Account of the Church and Parish of St. Andrew, Colebrooke", copies of which are now unobtainable. But a building so full of interest as this one merits a detailed and up-to-date guide, and it is hoped that the following pages will prove useful to parishioners and visitors who wish to study its architecture and history. Some notes on the parish have been added. Those who buy copies of this little book may like to know that the whole of the proceeds will go to the Church Funds.
October, 1952.

St. Andrew's Church Colebrooke

In the past, books of reference have variously named St. Mary, St. Thomas-a-Becket and St. Andrew as Patron Saints of the Church, but a fifteenth-century will seems to settle the matter in favour of the last-named, for on 8th June, 1418, one Thomas Reymound left "XXs. for the fabric fund of the Church of St. Andrew at Colebrooke", and the Church is known by this title nowadays.
First Stage: Twelfth Century
The earliest known reference to the Church occurs in a letter written to King Henry II by Bartholomew, who was Bishop of Exeter 1162-84. In this the Bishop claimed the patronage of the living, though Alexander de Colebrooke, Knight, who held the manor under the Bishop, had tried to wrest the benefice from him and transfer it to the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. The Bishop, while allowing the Prior and Brethren to receive ten shillings a year from the Church, a payment which was continued until the Reformation, appropriated the living to his Chapter of Exeter. (There was no Dean until the office was created by Bishop Briwere some fifty years later). Thus the Church became in due course a `peculiar' of the Dean and Chapter, and, as such, was outside Episcopal jurisdiction, until most peculiars were abolished in the middle of the nineteenth century.
From traces which still remain it is possible to picture what the building was like in the time of Bishop Bartholomew. In the south wall of the nave, on the outside, there can be seen, between the tower and the south transept, the signs of four arches which once formed an arcade between the nave and a south aisle. They are of primitive construction, suggestive of early Norman work. Inside, the transitional Norman arch near the pulpit shows that a south transept existed before the present one.
So this early church probably followed the normal plan, being cruciform, with a narrow nave, a short chancel, transepts, aisles and probably a west tower.

Second Stage: c. 1320
About a century later the building was in poor condition, for Visitations of 1281 and 1301 reported it as badly roofed, with a small mean chancel in need of repair. This state of affairs was, however, soon remedied for a third Visitation of 1330 reported "an adequate chancel and the whole church well roofed". Again, enough remains to enable us to picture the building as it then stood.
The south aisle had gone and the arcade was filled up. There was a nave, well lit by windows in the early Decorated style, as the two west of the porch show, an enlarged chancel with similar windows, and a south transept rebuilt as a chantry chapel. The lower stages of the present tower may have been built at this time. What had happened to the north aisle and transept, if they ever existed, is a matter of conjecture.

Third Stage: Fifteenth Century
The third and final stage in the development of the building occurred in the middle of the fifteenth century, when the north aisle and the Coplestone chantry were built in the Perpendicular style, with an arcade of five arches between them and the nave and chancel. To this period belong also the upper stages of the tower, and the east window of the chancel.
Outside the church, the visitor should notice in the south wall the arcade mentioned above, most of it to the west of the porch, but with one arch between that and the transept.
On the south wall of the south transept there are two small incisions in the stone. One is the monogram jihs (for Jesus), the other a small cross with four equal arms.
The large yew tree nearby was planted in 1795 over the grave of John Sillifant of Combe.
On the south side of the chancel there is a priest's door, and below it a stone, once clearly the top of a tomb, which may have come from one of the recesses in the transept. Above the door on some of the guttering can be seen the date 1879. This was when the Ecclesiastical Commissioners completed an extensive restoration of the Chancel.
The dripstone of the east window of the chancel ends in two corbels with shields. The southern one bears the present arms of the See of Exeter, a sword surmounted by two keys in saltire. The other has two keys addorsed in bend, between them a sword in bend sinister. These were the old arms of the See of Exeter which began to be superseded by the present ones soon after the middle of the fifteenth century.
North of the chancel we notice the east window of the aisle with its beautiful tracery, which can be seen better outside than from within. There is one very like it at Broad Clyst in exactly the same position. Probably these are instances of a custom, not uncommon in Devon, of continuing in the fifteenth century the use of motifs normally associated with fourteenth-century work. Around the corner, in the North Wall of the Church we find a disused doorway leading to the Coplestone Aisle. The remains of an old chimney can also be seen. This part of the churchyard with graves dating from 1880-1920 was the last part of the "old yard" to be used, before the site of a line of cottages destroyed by fire in 1893, was incorporated into the western side of the churchyard. In a lithograph of 1840 by William Spreat, a path can be seen beside the North Wall extending the entire length of the Church.
Finally we come to the tower, of which the lower stages may belong to the rebuilding of the fourteenth century, for the west window, before it was replaced late in the nineteenth century by the present one, is said to have resembled those in the nave. The upper stages are probably late fifteenth century, but the whole was thoroughly restored in 1674, as the Churchwardens' Accounts show, and this date, and the initials R.C., are carved on the mouldings of the doorway. (The names of Richard Cheriton, who provided ropes and cradle, and Robert Clarke, who "helped the masons" occur in the accounts).
The first clock was installed in 1659 and over the years has undergone much restoration. In 1953 surplus funds from the Coronation were used to re-gild the face. Again in 1976 the face was completely restored courtesy of Mr. Harold Pennington in memory of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. W. Pennington of Horwell Barton. In recent years it has received a new synthetic face. In 2001, while undergoing repairs, it was brought into the 21st century with the fitting of an automatic winding mechanism.
The sundial, on the South face of the Tower, by Hems of Exeter dated 1889, was the gift of Charles Turner. Charles's father James, who died in 1899 at the age of 88, had been a stonemason in the parish for over 60 years. His "signature" can still be seen on many of the 19th century headstones in the churchyard.
For some centuries, according to the Churchwardens' Accounts, the church was entirely roofed with oak shingles, but on 8th April, 1844, it was decided that all further repairs should be done in slate, and the roof is now wholly of that material. It was reslated by public subscription in 1985.

Introduction : Part 2 : Part 3 :

Return to Top