Historians and enthusiasts through the ages have remarked that Saint Winifred's is one of the most interesting and architecturally important parish churches in Devon. It is also one of the oldest. There is clear evidence of three main stages of building, starting with the late Norman period, and tantalising hints of an earlier, Saxon building on the same site. In the whole county of Devon only one other church, Saint Giles' at Sidbury, with its pre-Conquest crypt, can claim evidence of Saxon remains.
The location of the church is worth considering. It is built on a leveled area to the north of one of Branscombe's three unnamed streams, high enough to avoid any possibility of flooding or standing water, but still essentially in the bottom of the valley. It has the normal west-east alignment. The main road through Branscombe now passes above the church, although there is evidence another route originally ran to the south, giving easier and more natural access to the south and west doors.
There is no obvious reason for the church to have been built where it is. The location seems to pay no heed to the fact that Branscombe is a coastal village. From the sea the church is invisible, and this may have been deliberate. If there was an earlier Saxon church on the site, then it would have been built at a time when pagan Viking raiders were coasting these waters, looking for plunder. From earliest times until the sixteenth century Reformation, even small parish churches were repositories of gold, silver and other precious objects. Placing it in a more central position, perhaps where the Mason's Arms now stands, would be an open invitation to any passing longship to stop by for some easy pickings.
Another possibility is that the piece of ground where Saint Winifred's now stands was a pre-Christian holy site. It was quite common for the early missionaries to preach and convert at such places. By doing so they would be challenging the old beliefs in a dramatic way, while at the same time capitalising on whatever religious awe the site commanded, in the minds of the local population. The presence of a nearby stream for baptism would make it especially attractive to Christian missionaries.
It would be a natural next step for the newly-converted community to erect first a shrine, and then a church, on the same site. There are examples in Britain where the original pagan structures, an earth ring or a standing stone, are still in place within the church grounds.
This brings us to the dedication of the church to Saint Winifred, who has been somewhat unkindly described as `an obscure north Welsh saint'.
The dedication seems as old as the church itself. Most experts
accept that the Saint referred to is Winifred, the Saxonised form
of Gwenfrewi, which means in Celtic a beautiful calm.
In the old English calendar, her day is November 3rd. She was
supposedly martyred in Flintshire (now Clwyd), on the 24th of
June, 650 AD. Versions of her story differ in detail, but the
key elements are the same.
The Legend of Saint Winifred
Winifred was the daughter of Teuyth ap Eylud of Tegengle, Clwyd. When a young girl, she was bound by her parents to her uncle, Saint Bueno, for a life in the Church. But she was desired by Prince Cradocus, the son of a local lord, whom she rejected. Angered by this, he pursued and beheaded her, at the door of Saint Bueno's chapel, as she was seeking refuge. Where her blood touched the ground, a spring of clear water began to flow. Saint Bueno rushed from the chapel and cursed the prince, who `melted like wax'. Saint Bueno then miraculously restored Winifred's head to her body, leaving only a thin red line as evidence of her misadventure. She recovered and devoted the rest of her life to Christian works. Her spring, or "well" was said to possess healing powers.
Saint Bueno worked mainly in north-west Wales and Anglesey and is considered one of the most important saints of that region. There have been many theories advanced about possible links between him and Branscombe, some quite fanciful, but it is possible he visited or preached here. It has been suggested that Winifred herself might have done so. After her (natural) death, her shrine at Holywell, near Chester, became a centre of pilgrimage and miraculous healing. A medieval scholar wrote of it:
`The stones of the holy well appear bloody as they did at first and the moss smells as frankincense and cures divers diseases.' (divers = many and varied)
Finally, there is a tradition that Branscombe is the last resting-place
of Saint Branwallader, also known as Saint Brannoc, a fourth century
Celtic martyr. It has been suggested that Branscombe derived its
name from this saint. A fifteenth century commentator described
a stone coffin that held his body, and visitors to the church
will note there is an ancient stone coffin standing near the south
porch to this day. But earlier, more contemporary, documents say
that only the saint's arm was enshrined at Branscombe, and even
this was removed to Milton, Dorset, by order of King Athelstan
in 933 AD. A mid-nineteenth century sexton, John Parrett, said
the stone coffin near the porch was brought from Otterton by one
of the Peyton family. There is a fragment of an equally ancient
stone coffin in the south transept. This was found beneath the
floor when it was lifted, in 1911.
Drawings © 1996 Angela Lambert
© 1996 Ronald Branscombe branscombe@globalnet.co.uk
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This page last updated: 15 August 1996 08:52:21