Puritan's Pit (also known as Preacher's Pit, The Devil's Pit or Gruti's Pit) is a large steep-sided pit in the south side of the valley of the

River Lemon The River Lemon is a 9.9 mile (16 kilometre) river in the county of Devon in southwest England. It is a tributary of the River Teign, starting on Dartmoor by Haytor, and ending in Newton Abbot. It rises on the south-east side of Dartmoor near ...

in Bradley Woods, just west of the town of

Newton Abbot Newton Abbot is a market town and civil parish on the River Teign in the Teignbridge District of Devon, England. Its 2011 population of 24,029 was estimated to reach 26,655 in 2019. It grew rapidly in the Victorian era as the home of the Sou ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon i ...

, England. It is probably a collapsed limestone cavern and although it is about 12 metres deep and some 50 metres across at its widest, it is invisible from the river and the main path on the other side.

History

Puritan's Pit owes its notability to Willam Yeo, a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their na ...

clergyman who was installed as

Rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

of Wolborough in 1648 by

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three ...

. Yeo was reportedly very assiduous in his duties and would walk around the town after Sunday service with a constable, to ensure that the

sabbath In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, commanded by God to be kept as a holy day of rest, as G ...

was kept holy. After 14 years, however, he was deprived of his living for refusing to acknowledge the post-Restoration Act of Uniformity. In the years that followed, Yeo and his supporters met in Puritan's Pit by night to worship. At this time he was effectively an outlaw as can be seen from an order of sessions that was made in 1683 offering a reward of 40

shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currency, currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 1 ...

s to anyone who apprehended a dissenting minister. The

Act of Toleration 1689 The Toleration Act 1688 (1 Will & Mary c 18), also referred to as the Act of Toleration, was an Act of the Parliament of England. Passed in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution, it received royal assent on 24 May 1689. The Act allowed for f ...

brought this episode to a close, and Yeo's house was certified to be used as a place of worship. Today, the pit can be accessed via a steep path on the south side of the river. The bottom of the pit is covered with large limestone boulders and the remains of trees that have fallen in.

References

* *{{cite book , title=Newton Abbot, The Story of the Town's Past , author=Derek Beavis , publisher=Barracuda Books , location=Buckingham

ng. Ng, ng, or NG may refer to: * Ng (name) (黄伍吳), a surname of Chinese origin Arts and entertainment * N-Gage (disambiguation), a handheld gaming system * Naked Giants, Seattle rock band * '' Spirit Hunter: NG'', a video game Businesses ...

, year=1985 , isbn=0-86023-236-0 *E. Windeatt (1884). ''Early Nonconformity in Newton and its Neighbourhood.'', Rep. Trans. Devon. Ass. Advmt Sci. 16, 489-497. Caves of Devon Newton Abbot