St. Michael's Church

 

James Davidson's 'Manuscript Notes on Devon Churches', researched and written, during the 1840's notes that:

 

"This little village is on the very border of the county of Devon. The church consists of a Nave about 35 feet long by 15 wide, a Chancel about 21 by 14 and a square embattled Tower at the western end containing four bells. The windows at the east and west ends are formed by three lights with cinquefoiled heads and quatrefoils in the arch. The others are of later date. The pews are of oak and modern. The Font is ancient, of octagonal form, of moor stone, enclosed in a wooden case. A gallery bears the date 1836."

 

Later writings state:

“The church, since the 12th century, has undergone so many modifications that no traces of any Norman origin remain. They did exist, if in a very imperceptible manner, for a piece of Norman work, probably an old door jamb, was laid as a step in the south porch"

 

The building was restored in 1871, and seems to have been considerably re-built at that time at a cost of £800 raised by subscription.

 

From the South Molton Deanery Magazine of June 1932 we discover that

 

“the yew tree in the well kept yard before the Church was brought from the Parsonage pear orchard in 1832, the year after the parsonage was burnt down"

 

The Bells

 

 

In 1553, the Church Goods Commissioners reported that there were four bells. Of these four, Ellacombe reported three still in the tower in 1865. The four bells reported were inscribed:-

1 Voca mea viva Depello cunta vocina laus dis plaudit.
2 The same period and legends.
3 Thomas Blackmore Churchwarden 1619,T.P..
4 Me melior vere non sub ere R.S.

 

The Central Council of Church Bell Ringers reported on the bells in 1981:

 

“By the end of the Middle Ages most English parish churches had three bells or four. East Anstey was listed in the 1553 Inventory as having four, and the ring remained four until 1905. In that year the old Tenor, a bell of about 11 cwt, was scrapped and recast into two smaller bells to make a lighter ring of five. This bell seems from the record we have of it to have been by Roger Semson of Ash Priors, who lived in the time of Mary I and may have cast it just before 1553 or recast it just after. It was described as a 'bad casting' and if its note was A as H.T.Ellacombe says (and he is often wrong) the four would not have been tuned in a major scale"

The oldest bell in the ring is almost certainly the 4th, which is an excellent casting by one of the Exeter founders, probably about 1450. Its inscription is one of the “stock” Exeter ones:

 

'Voce mea viva depello cunta nociva' which translates as:

 

'With my lively voice I drive away all hurtful things'

 

This is a reference to the universal belief in ancient times that church bells could drive away natural disasters such as lightning, flood and plague.

The Tenor was recast in 1619 by Thomas Pennington. He is the first representative of a family who dominated Westcountry bellfounding from about 1560 to 1824. In 1619 the Penningtons were based in Barnstaple.