St Peters Church Treborough Somerset

THE CHURCH OF ST. PETER TREBOROUGH

Treborough is very probably the Third highest church in all Southern England and this suggests that the site is of great antiquity. It could well be that a wooden church or churches existed in Saxon times. It is a fact, however, that Treborough is not mentioned in the Taxation of Pope Nicholas IV of 1291 which is regarded as a complete list of existing churches. The Bishop's Registers show the first induction of a rector in 1322 but this, of course, does not exclude the possibility of a Church well before this date.

St Peters Church Treborough Somerset

Treborough Church plaque unveiled May 16th 1920

The church, perpendicular in style, was very largely reconstructed in the second quarter of the nineteenth century before which there had been a porch and entrance at the west end and when no doubt the tower was given its present pyramid roof.

The 500 year old font has an octagonal basin supported by an angel at each angle and is ornamented in deep relief. There is a little medieval piscina on a pedestal in the north wall of the chancel.  The wooden pulpit is older than the Reformation.

Treborough Church

In the tower there are three bells, one pre-Reformation bearing the inscription in Gothic characters "Ave Maria Gratia Plena" and below the initials R.S., the second bears the date 1634 and the inscription "I sound to bid the sick repent in hope of life when breath is spent'; the third has the date A.D. 1906 and the inscription "Ad Gloriam Dei'; "Walter W. Joyce, Rector, H.R. Bishop, D. W. Bishop Churchwardens".

In the churchyard is a medieval stone cross said to date from the late XIII century, though its state of preservation suggests it may well be a replacement. Certainly Savage in 1830 stated that the shaft had gone and Pooley in "Old Stone Crosses" 1877 says "The carved piece of stone (lying on the displaced steps) is supposed to be the head of the cross".

In one corner of the churchyard is re-interred a pre-historic skeleton whose slate-lined grave was uncovered under a small round barrow in Langridge Wood in 1820 by men seeking stone for road repairs. This barrow dating from between 1500 and 2000 B.C. contained the only known stone-lined grave now visible on Exmoor, it lies about 1200 yards NNE of the church.

St Peter's Church Treborough pencil drawing approx date 1990

The church was designated a Grade II listed buildingsin 1969, and the cross Grade II in 1985

The Rector and Churchwardens are indebted to Mr. E. F. Williams of the neighbouring parish of Luxborough for this short history.

St Peters' Church Treborough Tree Festival 2005

St Peters Church Treborough Somerset

John Bishop's gravestone in Treborough Churchyard

In Treborough churchyard on the right-hand side of the path from the gate to the church and not far from the old cross are two tombstones side by side on which the first name recorded is the same man in each case -  Isaac Chedzoy, aged 45 who was killed in the quarry on Dec 8, 1875. Below this name on one stone are the name of his father and mother and on the other the names of his wife and son, all of whom died after 1875. A graphic account of his death appeared in a contemporary newspaper.

Wedding at Treborough Church

Wedding at Treborough Church

Parson Henry Gale of Treborough

Treborough Church Cross - picture Eric

Dec 2005 - St Peters Church Treborough was awarded a grant to assist in the refurbishment of the roof and to investigate damp problems.

St. Peter's Church is situated in sparsley populated hill country parish of scattered farms high up on the Brendons. One hundred years ago it was busy with iron ore miners and workers from a large blue slate quarry. The manor of Treborough is mentioned in Domesday and described as lying waste and uncultivated, and the church is not included in the Pope Nicholas taxation of 1292. Probably it was the following century before the first church was built here, but there was certainly one by at least 1340 when it was recorded that 'John de Pouldon, priest, admitted to the church of Treberge'. Entrance into the church today is through the south tower, where a flight of eleven steps stand isolated against a wall. Once, no doubt, they led up to a ringing chamber overhead. Collinson in 1791 and Savage in 1830 both reported a porch at the west end, but this has quite disappeared. In style the church is Perpendicular except the pyramid tower roof, which is 19th century. Nave and chancel are 15 feet wide and 50 feet long, with pews for 100 people.

A pedestal stone font with supporting angels at each corner, and a nice pillar piscina in the chancel, are both about 1450, and perhaps the oldest visible work in the building. All the glass is clear including that in the three-light chancel window. A simple wood lectern carries a brass plate with the inscription, 'In memory of Queen Victoria. Purchased with money collected by the children of Treborough. 1901'. An alabaster tablet commemorates seven men who did not return to their green hills after World War I, and there is a metal one to three men who died in World War II. The church walls are pebble-dashed without, and cream within, except for the chancel which is painted orange. The registers date from 1693. Several tombstones refer to the quarry in the parish. There is one to Isaac Chedzoy, who 'met his death at Treborough Slate Quarry', and another to 'Griffith Ellis, Quarryman, late of Llanilyon, Carnarvonshire, 1852'.

In the 1840s a Methodist class met for a few years in the house of Joseph Payne, but the work was eventually transferred to the chapels at Beulah and Gupworthy.

The marriage of Belinda and Tim Swan at Treborough Church on 26th May 2007

The Churchyard

Richard Babbage Baker
On entering the Treborough Churchyard on your right hand side, inside the gate, is the grave of Richard Babbage Baker. Richard and his wife lived in the cottage at the end of the Churchyard curently called 'The Old Post Office' but then referred to as 'Church Cottages'. At this tiime it was one of a pair of cottages which has now been amalgamated into a single dwelling. Doreen's mother, Ethyl May Baker and her sisters Annie Jayne Baker and Maud Baker and brother Percy Baker also lived in the cottage. Percy Baker was a Church Warden at Treborough Church and farmed at Treborough Lodge. Ethyl was a Cook and Annie a Nanny employed at Treborough Lodge. After the marriage of Ethyl to Herbert Davies at Treborough Church on Christmas Day the couple subsequently moved to Bathpool near Taunton.

Richard 's great great grandaughter is Susan.

Doreen Chapman
The ashes of Doreen Chapman (nee Davies), grand daughter of Richard Babbage Baker, lie at the far end of Treborough Churchyard marked by a stone memorial. Doreen loved and adored her time in Treborough and always said was her piece of heaven, filled with so many happy childhood memories resulting from visiting her Grandparents in the Cottage adjacent to where her ashes lie.

Treborough Church under scaffold January 2008

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