St Petrock's Church in
Parracombe
Parracombe is a rural settlement south-west of Lynton, in Devon, England. It is situated in the Heddon Valley, on Exmoor. The population at the 2011 census was 293.
A number Bronze Age barrows exist nearby, along with several other small ear ...
,
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. Devo ...
, England was built in the 13th century. It is recorded in the
National Heritage List for England
The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...
as a designated Grade I
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
,
and is now a
redundant church
A redundant church, now referred to as a "closed church", is a church building that is no longer used for Christian worship. The term most frequently refers to former Anglican churches in the United Kingdom, but may also be used for disused church ...
in the care of the
Churches Conservation Trust
The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...
.
It was declared redundant on 25 November 1969, and was
vested
In law, vesting is the point in time when the rights and interests arising from legal ownership of a property is acquired by some person. Vesting creates an immediately secured right of present or future deployment. One has a vested right to an ...
in the Trust on 23 June 1971.
The church is dedicated to
St Petrock. Parts of the building, including the
chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.
Ov ...
and the lower part of the tower remain from the 13th century but much of the current fabric dates from a reconstruction in the early 16th century.
In 1879 there were worries about the stability of the building however protests led by
John Ruskin
John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...
who donated £10 lead to the preservation of the church and the construction of a new one further west in the village.
The interior includes 18th-century
box pew
A box pew is a type of church pew that is encased in panelling and was prevalent in England and other Protestant countries from the 16th to early 19th centuries.
History in England
Before the rise of Protestantism, seating was not customary in ch ...
s, a
Georgian
Georgian may refer to:
Common meanings
* Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country)
** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group
** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians
**Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
pulpit and a screen with a wooden
tympanum above it which dates from the 18th century.
Gallery
File:Parracombe 1.jpg, The exterior of St Petrock's from the southwest
File:Parracombe 2.jpg, The interior of St Petrock's from the back of the south aisle
File:Parracombe 3.jpg, The interior of St Petrock's from the front of the south aisle. Note the hat pegs on the wall on the left
File:Parracombe 4.jpg, The interior of St Petrock's from the back of the nave
File:Parracombe 5.jpg, The exterior of St Petrock's from the southeast
See also
*
References
13th-century church buildings in England
Church of England church buildings in Devon
Grade I listed churches in Devon
Churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust
Churches dedicated to St Petroc
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