Promoting awareness of the archaeology and history of north Devon
Promoting awareness of the archaeology and history of north Devon
An Ecclesiastical Spat at Frithelstock -James Coulter (Newsletter No 12 2006)
About two miles west of Torrington stand the ruined remains of Frithelstock priory, one of the very few such of the seventeen or thereabouts monastic houses which existed within the county before the Dissolution. Founded in 1229 as a daughter house of Hartland Abbey, the canons of Frithelstock in 1351 became involved in a somewhat comical dispute with John Grandisson the diocesan bishop of Exeter when it came to his notice that they had built a chapel in a nearby wood called Waddycleve dedicated to Mary the Virgin in which they had placed an altar and an image. In breach of canon law they had neglected to have the chapel licensed and consecrated by the bishop and moreover it was alleged that having become a place of popular pilgrimage, unorthodox religious rites being practiced there were more than somewhat idolatrous.
In November 1351, Grandisson wrote to the rural dean of Hartland and the vicars of neighbouring parishes demanding that the chapel building and all its contents should be destroyed on pain of excommunication. In their reply, the rural dean and his colleagues confirmed that the image and the altar had been removed and that the building was standing empty but that the canons would be willing to destroy it if required. This seemingly reasonable response brought a wrathful reply from the bishop demanding that the building be destroyed forthwith and that the prior appear before a commission of enquiry to explain his disobedience. A brief response from the rural dean informed the bishop that his orders had been carried out which at first glance would appear to be the end of the story—but not quite yet.
In the latter 1700s, Jeremiah Mills, dean of Exeter, sent a questionnaire to all the parishes within the diocese requesting information about many things including the presence of chapels.
The entry for Frithelstock contains the following note:
On a Tenement called Waddecleve, Part of ye Priory Lands, is a Dwelling
House which goes by ye name of ye Chappell, near a Mile from ye Priory.
Its Make shows it to have been a chappell. In 1929 the local historian
R. Pearce Chope, quoting the vicar of Frithelstock, reported that the
dwelling house previously known as Waddycleve was now known as Mount Pleasant.
It still exists and is to be found at Ordnance Survey grid reference SS
476 193.
It is interesting to speculate why the canons and local clergy appear to have conspired to deceive the bishop. North Devon was a remote place in the fourteenth century far from the power centre of Exeter and such places tend to inspire strong local loyalties. Besides, the generous donations of pilgrims to the chapel of Mary at Waddycleve had made it into a nice little earner until Henry VIII put a stop to all that.
On a carved pew end in the parish church at Frithelstock there is an amusing relic of the contest between the bishop and the prior where they are shown putting out their tongues at each other.