Relic Of A Troubled Church

Title

Relic Of A Troubled Church

Artist

Michaela Perryman

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

Holy Trinity Buckfastleigh has a long historic legend attached to it, briefly this is it.

Squire Richard Cabell lived during the 1600’s and was the local squire at Buckfastleigh. He had a passion for hunting and was what in those days described as a ‘monstrously evil man’. He gained this reputation for amongst other things immorality and having sold his soul to the Devil. There was also a rumour that he had murdered his wife. On the 5th of July 1677 he passed away and was laid to rest in ‘the sepulchre’ but that was only the beginning of the story. Below the church are a system of caves which run for about 3.5km. In ‘Reed’s Cave’ is a weird natural formation known as the ‘Little Man’, this has been formed by the joining of a stalactite and a stalagmite. The figure is said to resemble a human figure in seventeenth century clothes. Unnervingly this formation has been calculated to lie directly below the tomb of Cabell.

In the nineteenth century the graveyard was apparently a frequent target for body snatchers. Its secluded location and a convenient lane made it the ideal spot. On Tuesday the 8th of May 1849 arsonists broke into the church and started a fire which destroyed the vestry, part of the roof of the north aisle, the parish chest and badly damaged the communion table. 1884 the church was restored and the work included renewing the spire which had been truncated by a previous lightening strike. During the Second World War some of the stain glass windows were shattered by the blast from German bombs which fell nearby.

21st of July 1992 when sometime around midnight the church was broken into and a fire started under the altar. This time the inferno completely gutted the church. The biggest problem that the fire brigade faced was that the nearest hydrant was a quarter of a mile away and the fact that the water had to be pumped uphill, it took a relay of thirty eight 70ft connected hoses to get the water on site. The fire was so intense that the heat literally blew apart the old Norman font.

Three arches of a ruined church

Featured in
England, Scotland, Wales 13/06/2021
Urbex Abandoned 04/07/2021

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June 12th, 2020

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