St Nectan's Church, Hartland

St Nectan's Church, Hartland
Parish Church of St Nectan

Church of St Nectan
50°59′42″N 4°30′59″W / 50.99500°N 4.51639°W / 50.99500; -4.51639Coordinates: 50°59′42″N 4°30′59″W / 50.99500°N 4.51639°W / 50.99500; -4.51639
Country  United Kingdom
Denomination Church of England
Churchmanship Broad Church
Website www.achurchnearyou.com/hartland-st-nectan/
History
Founder(s) Gytha, Countess of Wessex
Dedication Saint Nectan
Architecture
Status Parish Church
Style Gothic
Specifications
Capacity 600
Length 137 ft
Other dimensions tower height: 128 ft
Materials stone and rubble
Administration
Parish Hartland (Hartland Coast Team)
Deanery Hartland
Archdeaconry Barnstaple
Diocese Exeter
Province Canterbury
Clergy
Rector The Revd Brenda Jacobs
Team Rector
Curate(s) The Revd Kevin Beer
Laity
Reader(s) Andrew MacWilliam

The Church of St Nectan is the parish church of Hartland, Devon, England. Sometimes referred to as the "Cathedral of North Devon", it is located in the hamlet of Stoke, about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west of the town of Hartland. It is dedicated to Saint Nectan.

History

Saint Nectan was one of many Celtic hermits and missionaries associated with early Christian sites in south-west Britain, South Wales and Ireland in the fifth and sixth centuries. A well 100 metres from the church is the reputed site of his hermitage.

The history of the area is obscure, however, the first recorded building here was a collegiate church served by twelve secular canons founded ca. 1050 by Gytha, Countess of Wessex (mother of King Harold). Traditionally the church was founded in thanksgiving for the preservation of her husband's life in a storm at sea; a better tradition associates her husband Godwin, Earl of Wessex and holder of the royal manor of Harton, with the foundation.

Nothing is known of the earliest building nor whether it was rebuilt or enlarged when the collegiate church was replaced by a house of Augustinian regulars at Hartland Abbey in the twelfth century.

The current building, believed to date from 1360, replaced the earlier church on the site, of which only the font still remains and is thought to date from 1170. The 128 ft tower, rising in four stages, claimed to be the highest in Devon, has for centuries been a landmark to sailors at sea. It was built about sixty years after the rest of the church and it contains a peal of six bells, last rehung in 1952, weighing practically 3 tons. The arch of the tower, open today, once housed a musicians' gallery where the 'church orchestra' of fiddles, double bass, flute and clarinet played for services.

Notable features

The magnificent rood screen (the finest in North Devon), dating from 1450, is a massive structure of eleven bays, 45 ft 6 in long, 12 ft 6 in high and 5 ft 10 in wide at the top. Earlier times saw both the organ and seating on top of the screen. Other features of great interest include the fine Norman font and the old wagon roofs. The monuments include an elaborate medieval tomb-chest, a small brass of 1610 and a metal-inlaid lid of a churchyard tomb of 1618.[1] The church contains a set of five windows by the glass painters Caroline Townshend and Joan Howson these depict the history of the parish. A further window by Townshend & Howson is installed at St John's Chapel of Ease in Hartland Square. The main east window and the tower window are by Christopher Webb. there are at least two windows by Alfred Beer - south sanctuary and east chancel chapel - It is possible that the removed but retained glass from the south chancel chapel window is also by Beer. The whole building is fitted out with a fine if plain set of pews most dating from the 16th century.[2][3] The graveyard of St. Nectan's is the burial place of Mary Norton, a children's writer, whose most famous work is The Borrowers.

List of clergy

Period Perpetual Curate
1543-1547 The Reverend John Husband
1598-1627 The Reverend Thomas Dove
1627-1646 The Reverend William Churton MA
1646-1676 The Reverend George Mountjoy BA
1677-1705 The Reverend William Orchard
1708-1726 The Reverend Robert Forster
1726-1739 The Reverend Canon James Harcourt DD[4]
1739-1752 The Reverend Kenrick Prescot DD
1752-1755 The Reverend William Morris
1755-1796 The Reverend Francis Tutte MA
1796-1859 The Reverend William Chanter BA
1859-1865 The Reverend Thomas How Chope BA
Period Vicar of Hartland
1865-1906 The Reverend Thomas How Chope BA
1907-1917 The Reverend Edgar Albert Luff MA
1917-1953 The Reverend Prebendary Ivon Lancelot Gregory BD [5]
1953-1966 The Reverend Andrew T. H. Jones MA[6]
1966-1977 The Reverend F. Harold Lockyear
1978-1993 The Reverend Louis M. Coulson
Period Hartland Coast Team Ministry
(Minister with special responsibility for Hartland)
1994-2001 The Reverend David J. Ford BD, Team Vicar
2003-2006 The Reverend Colin Hodgetts BA, Associate Minister
2006-2007 The Reverend Colin Hodgetts BA, Hon. Ass. Minister
2007-2012 The Reverend Shirley Henderson BA, Team Vicar
2012-2015 The Reverend Shirley Henderson BA, Team Rector
2016- The Reverend Brenda Jacobs BA, Team Rector

Services

Sunday:

Weekdays (in the Church Rooms):

See also

References

  1. ↑ Pevsner, N. (1952) North Devon. Penguin Books
  2. ↑ Hobbs, S. J. (2004), St Nectan's: The Question of a Seat
  3. ↑ (2011) The Ecclesiologist
  4. ↑ Also a Canon of Bristol
  5. ↑ Assistant curate 1908–1913. Made a prebendary of Exeter in the 1940s.
  6. ↑ Assistant curate 1950–1954. Later made a Prebendary of Exeter in 1982.
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