PARISHIONERS of St Michael de Rupe, Brentor, need strong constitutions and strong arms; it’s a stiff climb to the 37ft by 14ft 6in church, founded on a rocky Dartmoor tor in 1130 by local landowner Robert Giffard who, legend has it, was awash with gratitude at being spared from a violent storm off the Devon coast.
‘We can take a Land Rover up in good weather and a couple of parishioners lend us a powered wheelbarrow to help bring down hymn books in summer,’ explains churchwarden David Harris, a vet.
‘I love coming up here whatever the weather. There’s a huge sense of peace and that God is very close. It’s a privilege being churchwarden anywhere, but with so many visitors and pilgrims, in such an ancient place, it feels as if you’re a link in a chain that goes back centuries. It’s humbling to think of the hundreds of people who have done this job before and this makes you very aware of your responsibilities.’
Mr. Harris’s mother and co-churchwarden, Helen, admits that Michaelmas, with a baptism at 4.30 pm and Communion at 6 pm, was hard work, with warm water—the church has solar-powered electric light, but no water—booklets, wine and chalice needing to be carried up.
Last year, for the 100th anniversary of the Armistice, gas canisters for a beacon were hauled up the steep slope and everyone processed by torchlight; last week, local figures attended the 700th anniversary of the bishop riding out across the moor from Exeter to dedicate the church and the choir sang a specially commissioned piece.
Denne historien er fra December 11-18, 2019-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra December 11-18, 2019-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
