st saviours church
What's In A Church - St Saviour's
The story of Dartmouth’s St Saviours Church is full of intrigue, illegality and even an imposter Bishop - and this was before there was even agreement that there COULD be a church in Lower Dartmouth.
St Saviours is the only church I’ve ever heard of that was built because the people of a town were too worn out to walk to an existing one.
The church’s story starts more than 700 years ago when Edward 1 visited Dartmouth. Rather than marvel at this tall and famously forthright monarch visiting their small town, the people asked him for a new church because of the ‘very great fatigue’ in their bodies from walking up the hill to St Clements in Townstal.
The King who was known as the “Hammer of the Scots” was not known for being very forgiving or understanding but he granted the town’s wish with a charter for a new church in February of that year.
However, just because the King said they could did not mean that Dartmouth would get a new church – not by a long shot.
The Abbot of Torre – to whom the new church would belong – did NOT want there to be another place of worship in Dartmouth.
The reason was finance: even though the land for the new church had been gifted to the town by the Bacon family in the Clifton ward, there were no more people in the town and their donations would not stretch to the upkeep of another church.
So, despite the King giving his permission, by the time Edward died in 1307, tired by the long wars with the Scots and the Welsh, no church had even been started in the Lower Town and those poor parishioners were still suffering very great fatigue, climbing up the hill.
In 1329, things got serious: the priest at Townstal committed suicide and the Abbot decided it was right to punish this terrible crime by banning all services in the church at Townstal. No marriages, christenings, burials or any other type of service could be held there. It’s difficult to imagine what this must have meant in a time when most people did not have the ability to travel to nearby towns without a huge amount of effort and were incredibly God-fearing.
This ban lasted two years,and it re-ignited the desire for another church in the town.
That same year William Bacon, the son of the man who had originally offered land for a church, gave the same land to two Friars of the Hermits of St Augustine. They began to build a place for worship and were almost immediately ordered to stop by the Abbot who was clearly incensed: he claimed the Friars were ‘posing as priests’ and excommunicated William Bacon, a very serious thing to do.
The Abbot relented on William Bacon’s excommunication in 1334 and allowed the friars to use the chapel they had built, but NOT to celebrate mass or hear confession. He still felt they were in competition with the ‘Mother Church’ of St Clements.
There followed years of wrangling over the legality of the church and eventually the friars were ordered to demolish the church in 1344.
Then came the incredible visit of Hugo – the man from Damascus.
In 1344, just after the friars had been ordered to tear down their chapel, they appealed to the Pope himself for support. As they waited for news, in March there appeared “Brother Hugo”.
This man swaggered into town, dressed as a layman and wearing a sword and buckler, and said he was an envoy of the king.
He then went to the Friar’s chapel and took a staff in his hands, placed a Mitre on his head and declared himself to be the Bishop of Damascus. He claimed to have been sent by the Pope himself to consecrate the chapel. He walked around the small chapel and sprinkled holy water in a manner described by observers as “very convincing”. He confirmed a number of children and even absolved some men of the town who had been excommunicated for violent conduct. After this day of happy work he went off for a drink with the Mayor and William Bacon.
He was not, as you might have guessed, the Bishop of Damascus. He was from Cambridge, and a friar, apparently, who said he DID have special dispensation from the Pope to consecrate a place of worship if a local Bishop refused. He wasn’t prosecuted for his actions, but his “consecration” was not recognised.
Despite the long wrangles, and the threats to the building the friars had erected, it remained standing. In 1372, 86 years after the King granted permission, the town was allowed to have a church in Clifton by the Bishop of Exeter and the Abbott of Torre.
The towns people undertook to build it themselves and, although it was consecrated as the Church of Holy Trinity and St Mary, it was soon renamed St Saviours, possibly in honour of the Church of the Canons at Torre, which shared the name.
It took some time and saw some bizarre episodes to get it built, but the church of St Saviours is such an integral part of Dartmouth, both its landscape and community, that I think we can all be grateful for our forefathers’ persistence.
First published March/April 2013 By The Dart