Church of St Sabinus, Woolacombe
The Church of St Sabinus is the Church of England parish church for in Woolacombe, Devon. It is the only church in the United Kingdom that is dedicated to St Sabinus of Canosa and has been a Grade II* listed building since 1985.[1][2] The church comes under the Diocese of Exeter.
Dedication
It is not known why the church is dedicated to St Sabinus; in the 13th-century there was a chapel in nearby Barnstaple dedicated to him but this no longer exists. There is a popular local legend that the church is actually dedicated to a Celtic saint of the same name from Ireland who was shipwrecked on Woolacombe Sands, but there is no historical evidence to support that claim.[3][4]
Lady Rosalie Chichester of the local land-owning Chichester Family is believed to have been involved in the choice of a name and is known to have travelled extensively in Italy where she may have heard of St Sabinus; she may also have been aware of the Barnstaple connection.[1]
History
The original St Sabinus' Church was a small building known as the "Iron Church" erected about 200 yards up the hill out of Woolacombe. This catered for the increasing numbers of Victorian tourists who were regular visitors to the village and was extended in 1895 to include a chancel. This church was funded by the Chichester Family whose country seat was at Arlington Court 15 miles away. An appeal was launched to raise funds for a permanent church for the town. The Chichester Family donated the land, £200 and the necessary stone towards the building of the churchouse. The new church was designed by the architect W. D. Caröe and built between 1909 and 1912 and consecrated in 1912; it is sited on the main road into the village centre and is designed to resist winter storms from the Atlantic Ocean.
The church became part of the Ilfracombe Team Ministry in 1977. The Electoral Roll is about 65 and the average attendance each Sunday is 60.[5]
Design
The church is built of squared red sandstone rubble with stone dressings. It features Delabole slate roofs with gable ends. The nave and chancel have narrow aisles which are flat-roofed to the north. The asymmetrical placed transeptal tower stump is covered with a saddleback roof. The north aisle was completed in 1965 due to a lack of funds previously.[4] The aisles have low three-light windows. The chancel is slightly narrower than the nave and has three-bay arcades and a waggon roof with carved corbel bosses at the east end. There is an elaborate wooden chancel screen with grille; the octagonal baptismal font with fleuron decoration dates to 1916. The pulpit is slightly earlier, dating to 1914. The sedilia has quatrefoil windows to the chancel of two seats and the piscina to left has a scalloped base.[2][6]
Among the stained glass windows are those by the studio of
Gallery
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View down the nave -
Window dedicated to Captain William John Nutman, AM -
Detail of the Nutman Window showing SS Aidar -
The pulpit dates to 1914 -
The distinctive glass screen at the rear of the church
References
- ^ a b Jean Dodds and Giles King-Smith, St Sabinus' Church, Woolacombe (Privately printed) (2013)
- ^ a b c Historic England. "Church of St Sabinus (Woolacombe Church) (1162825)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
- ^ "Woolacombe on Everything Exmoor". everythingexmoor.org.uk. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
- ^ a b Church of St Sabinus, Woolacombe – Church of England website
- ^ "St Sabinus Church, Woolacombe – BBC Domesday Reloaded website". Archived from the original on 2 January 2018. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
- ^ Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: North Devon, Penguin Books (1952) pg 170
- ^ Dodds and King-Smith, pg 18