Hennock Church of St Mary Description
- A tremendous view eastwards from the church yard
- Fascinating story about a medieval rector
- Sparse and beautiful interior
- Nice medieval stained glass angels
- A good Norman font
- Beautifully carved 16th century rood screen
- With some powerful medieval paintings on the wainscoting
- An original medieval ceilure
Hennock Church of St Mary and parish shenanigans
Hennock Church of St Mary surely has one of the best views in the whole of Devon, though that is very crowded field.
It is set high above the River Teign, very high indeed, up near-vertical lanes, looking East over half of Devon. It is beautiful, and the churchyard is just one vantage point, others are there to be sought out.
The parish is somewhat shrunk. Back in the day it reached down to the lowlands around Chudleigh Knighton, now a separate parish, and westwards over its own plateau where three reservoirs were built in the twentieth century; these and their associated shenanigans take a fair amount of land from the old parish space.
Talking about shenanigans, there was some most bodacious shenaniganery back here in the 1380s, starting with the Rev Thomas Wenlake (or Wenloke) who after eleven years of priesting decided he was not getting paid enough; to be specific, his portion of the tithes was not enough to cover his bills.
The Hennock vicar goes weird
The tithes were a church tax of ten percent on everything each individual produced in a parish, and the right to these tithes was owned in Hennock by Torre Abbey down in what is now Torquay. Like many an owner of the ‘advowson’ (the right to tithes and to appoint the priest) they appointed a vicar who could take a portion for himself while the rest went to the Abbey.
Now this complaint was very rare, especially as the vicar also had a bit of church farmland for himself, and it does raise the question as to how high Tommy’s bar bill was and how extensive his playtime activities were.
Also worth taking into consideration is that just under a hundred years before, in 1291/2, Hennock was the thirty-seventh most highly taxed parish in Devon, a wealthy place for sure. Just where was Tommy’s money going?
Whatever the reason, the diocese decided to check out his complaint.
But here things go from rare to fascinatingly bizarre in the space of a few years. Because in Lent of 1385 Tommy was murdered, by persons (and it is stated by persons) unknown, and what is more everybody in the village was keeping schtum, lips well zipped, omertà, blind as a bat me.
The Rev offed, in Lent no less, and usually this would have been hugely distressing to the parishioners. Hugely.
But there is a letter from the church big boys in London to the Bish of Exeter saying basically excommunicate the lot of them, these ‘certain students of perdition, satellites of Satan’ (if you know of a better Heavy Metal band name than Satellites of Satan then let me know). Excommunicate them…
“… with bells rung, candles lighted and extinguished by throwing them to the ground, with the cross raised in their hands, and with all the solemnity and shame used in such things as are customary in this part, publicly and solemnly announce and cause to be announced publicly; not ceasing from this kind of denunciation, until now the aforesaid blasphemers should have deserved the benefit of absolution on the premises, and they would have had another commandment from us.”
Register of Bishop Brantingham, translated from the Latin
This was quite literally a death sentence to the parishioners, a spiritual death sentence; thrown out of the church, thrown out of God’s grace, thrown out of heaven and condemned to hell forever.
The story ends in a mystery
And here, like all good mysteries, the story ends, letting us wonder deeply. What led the parishioners to keep silent. Had Tommy extracted his tithes too viciously and got fragged? Did he set up a little gang of ne’er-do-wells to boss the parish around? Had he been tupping too many ewes, or had he started on the children, a nightmarish possibility.
Or did he step on someone’s toes, a local boss who did not like his interference and who the parish folk were afeared of?
But let us to the church, the beautiful church to wash the taste of possible crimes out of our heads.
It is mainly fifteenth century, rebuilt long after Tommy’s abrupt departure and restored in 1875. Here the interior of the fine porch, the main entrance, which used to have a floor above it, now no more.
Inside Hennock Church of St Mary
The interior of Hennock Church is a true sparseness, with rough Victorian pews for an honest day’s worship, and to be fair in Victorian times the congregation was probably less bucolic farmers than miners who worked the iron, tin and china clay mines and quarries in this parish. It was a busy industrial area.
The church itself has
No architectural exterior or interior architectural definition of the chancel, which is merely a continuation of the nave
Devonshire Parishes, Charles Worthy: 1889
Including the two chapels-as-were at the end of the aisles, a design that is known but comparatively rare. Why chosen is unknown, my tuppeny ha’penny worth is that they had the money for the rood screen to be installed at the same time so this plan was adopted.
Very speculative, mind you, and happy to be wrong.
A pair of medieval angels
There are four medieval stained glass angels still remaining
Having the look of frustrated winged beings struggling to get inside the building, uselessly batting their hands and feathers against the glass in the windows. Marvellously lively!
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All in their feather suits that could well be just that, feather suits worn by participants in religious processions or theatre in the parish.
Tragically, writing about the 1875 restoration, Charles Worthy says
… quantities of ancient stained glass were removed from the north aisle … portions of of figures of bishops and priests in full robes, the birth of our Saviour, and the adoration of the Magi… I believe that a great quantity of valuable glass is still permitted, even in these day, to be carried away from churches by workmen simply because it is considered to be dirty, incapable of restoration, and therefore worthless.
Devonshire Parishes, Charles Worthy: 1889
Which rather leaves me wondering about differently cultures and all that, and a desire to invent a time machine.
The Norman font
Though this divine Norman font is a time machine in itself, staying original while the church and its furnishings have morphed all around.
It is now nearly halfway in time, only two long paces if you will, between us and that wild Jewish preacher who bowed his head and took his baptism from a reluctant John the Baptist, who knew the Divine when it said hello.
Just two long paces.
Hennock’s beautiful rood screen
Even shorter away in time is the fifteenth century rood screen, and when we talk about the Hennock rood screen we need to mention it also has the original ceilure (decorated ceiling over the screen).
That is for later, but the survival of the pair is a delight.
The rood, the crucifixion, is from 1956 but rhyming with the original, placed when the whole was restored by Herbert Reed.
Medieval carving to stir the soul
The carving is a breathtaking deliciousness, with original colours still powerfully glowing.
These are on the uprights, grapevines, the wine of the communion, the blood of Christ, the celebration of the Divine through the Eucharist, prayed everyday in the sacred area behind this screen.
His grapes are ripening or ripe, his leaves in summer bloom, or autumn decay, and however wild and luxuriant the masses of foliage may be, the scheme is absolutely subordinate to the breadth of the masses of light and shade.
Wood Sculpture, Alfred Maskell: 1911
Because here, the wild and luxuriant show just how important the carving was…
Carving and paintings working together
Not subordinate to the paintings on the wainscoting, but equal or even more powerful.
It is tempting to fixate on the images, which I shall do for sure, but they are intimately linked with the carving work, the seeds, sprouting plants and foliage all painted and gilded, twisting and writhing in flickering candlelight, and saints each in their own doorway to the sacred beyond.
Oh to see it at its peak!
And these saints themselves seem to have suffered a second martyrdom at the the hands of the ignorant or the reformers, now they seem an eternal warning against hatred and intolerance, against religious oppression.
To be fair, that is a mighty fine role for a saint to have.
Sir John Shorn and St Gertrude
Here Sir John Shorn, a rector in fourteenth century Buckinghamshire, never actually made a saint but deeply venerated in Medieval England, with St Gertrude.
Sir John is shown as a priest holding a boot in which he is said to have trapped the devil, making that nasty little baddie to pop up and down according to his fancy.
Seventh century St Gertrude was, amongst other things, thought to be the cat’s pyjamas at warding off rats. Her popularity rocketed skywards during the succession of plague years that started with the Black Death in the mid 1300s.
The plague, mainly spread by rats, kept on hanging around and rearing its ugly head until at least 1665, so any Divine help in getting rid of the those infectious rodents was seized on with alacrity.
Peter the Martyr and St Margaret of Antioch
But here, glory be, are some undamaged figures, Peter the Martyr with a sword in his head as one does, holding a processional cross with a rosary (nice touch that!) dangling from his hand and a book in the other.
Next to him is St Margaret of Antioch emerging from the belly of a dragon.
But just look at the quality of the draftsmanship! And rather than read my witterings, as ever better folk have written before.
In the earlier times we may remember that there were artists who could design and paint such admirable panels as those of Hennock. These are English work, the delicately drawn outline having the sweep and decision of single stroke drawing. Doubtless the screen painters were equally able and refined.
Wood Sculpture, Alfred Maskell: 1911
It is beautiful work, desperately underrated as ever, except when us beauty fans kneel to praise the long dead artisans.
T Christ and an enchanting Annunciation
And here arguably the pièce de résistance, the Annunciation with a very rare portrayal of a graceful, beardless Christ (not to scale) to the side.
Christ here appears as the Salvator Mundi, the Saviour of the World, and presumably the reason he is so rarely depicted on a rood screen is that up top, above all, was always a rood, a carving or painting of the crucifixion.
But the Annunciation, a real corker… The way the two figures mirror each other, both expressing such innocence and wonder, both drawn so gracefully yet with an inner spontaneity and mystery, the Divine is about to be invited into our world…
The Angel Gabriel
In gorgeous technicolour no less! And with such a natty dresser doing the inviting who could say no? Gabriel here is a real dandy, beautifully clothed with wings to sigh for, the subtlety of their colouring is just dreamy.
As is the draughtsmanship here, with the confident outlining of the robe and undergarment; very much dressed as folk were back then, at least for a religious procession or some sort of theatre. I have said it before and will say it again, this is not the artist’s vision of an angel, this is the artist painting a lad or lass cosplaying an angel in the aforementioned religion stuff, with clip-on wings.
This is not fully accepted for sure, and it is tempting fate to claim that all wainscoting paintings in Devon are the same, but the ‘scene’ ones… ? I bet my bottom dollar it is so.
Hennock Church sanctuary
Here, through the screen, is the sanctuary cleaned up by the Victorians, probably in a total mess beforehand.
The altar table is made from the front of an ancient parish chest which used to stand in the chancel…
Devonshire Parishes, Charles Worthy: 1889
Which is a doubly interesting comment, because technically in the Church of England we do not use altars, we use tables, or, at a pinch an altar table.
Before Christ came, the Jewish traditions (or most at least, it was not a monolithic religion) understood that everybody needed to sacrifice animals at the altar in Jerusalem in order to atone for their sins, amongst other reasons.
In the Western Christian tradition Christ died for our sins, made the ultimate sacrifice, so Anglicans say that using an ‘altar’ would be near heretical, implying that we still need to make sacrifices, denying the meaning of Christ’s death and resurrection.
Pretty floor tiles
Getting back to shallower matters, my usual paddling pool, boy does this Victorian tiling make my heart go pitter-patter; the colour combination, the design, the geometric and foliage pattern together, just adorable.
The medieval ceilure
Looking up, the ceilure above the rood screen comes into play, one of the few surviving from the Medieval, and even more magnificently the colouring is pretty much spot on…
A small portion of the nave ceiling retaining elaborate specimen ancient work, consisting of gilded raised stars and other ornament, arranged on a diaper blue boarded ground; this portion of the work has been carefully repaired and damaged parts made good, the new gilding and colouring being made to harmonise with the old.
Western Morning News 01/06/1875
And so we get to see what it near probably looked like to ancient eyes, which is a privilege and a humongous delight.
Gilded carving
This ceilure was above the actual rood, the crucifixion carving, which was just above the rood loft that was there to provide access to folk to care for the rood and was carved with foliage and painted. In its turn the loft was supported by the screen in its turn with foliage and plant carvings and painted with saints and scenes from the life of Christ.
So the ceilure was heaven above, then Christ, God’s incarnation as man, then the world created by God along with the company of saints; the worshippers too, and the rest of the church, was also connected to this grand scene.
Christ, and more importantly his death and his victory over death, being the route between heaven and earth, his the path to follow.
Wonderful roof bosses
The whole is an artistry of enchantment and wonderment, as here with the roof bosses.
Hennock between heaven and earth
There are more treasures in the church, more than I have room for here.
But there remains this true treasure as well, the church’s position, and it is so worth mentioning again, it is extraordinarily special, that view that just keeps on taking the breath away.
Extraordinary too how many have sat or stood here, the folk of Hennock, the masons and labourers, woodworkers and painters, glazers and haulers, farmers and miners, tradesfolk and artists, pausing to feed their souls with this view, God’s bounty, his creation unfolding before them.
Here really does feel halfway to heaven, and I would not over-disagree with those who might claim it so.
It is wonderful.
