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South Hams24 > South Hams Facilities > South Hams Churches > St Petrox Church - Dartmouth

St Petrox Church - Dartmouth

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The earliest written record, predating the Norman Conquest, is a reference in a title deed of Little Dartmouth Farm describing land 'situate between Stoke Fleming and the Minster'. Then in 1192 a deed was drawn by William, son of Stephen of Tunstal, restoring to Richard the Fleming 'all the land of Dertmeta which is above the Wyke and between the monastery of St. Peter and the land of Stoke'. The land referred to is clearly the settlement of Little Dartmouth, but the 'monastery of St. Peter' must surely refer to the religious settlement called St. Petrox.

Whatever the occasion of the building of the chapel, it is likely that in 1192 it was maintained to provide a light at the harbour entrance. The whole coast was fringed with chapels in medieval times, some of which were used for a few years, whilst others were in service for centuries. The lonely site at the mouth of the Dart would seem to have been abandoned at some date before 1332; when Bishop Grandison licensed two priests to celebrate in the chapel of St. Petrox, built it was said of old, in the parish of the church of Stoke Fleming, the rights of the parish church being preserved. Seventeen years later William Smale (mayor in 1346) was contemplating ' the endowment of a chapel at St. Petrox.'

Out of one or other of these schemes developed the chapel of St. Petrox for the use of the residents in that part of Dartmouth which lies along the harbour edge between Bayard's Cove and the harbour mouth. This was known as South Town, and was in the parish of Stoke Fleming, which village is fully two miles away. By 1425 there is mention of the wardens of the store of the chapel of St. Petrox, and in 1438 a forty days indulgence was granted by Bishop Lacy for building, maintaining and repairing the parochial chapel with cure of St. Petrox.

The chapel is known to have been a building of only 'one roof' According to a writer in the 'Dartmouth Chronicle' (1 April 1868) this 'one roof' corresponded with the south aisle of the existing church. This may well be so, since Buck's view of the castle area of 1734 shows that the south wall was supported by two buttresses and had two small dormer windows; and this tallies with a War Office plan of 1741. The three windows now existing would appear to have been traced to correspond with the two in the north aisle, erected in 1641.

It may well be said that the builders 'builded better than they knew' for whilst they sought to provide for the every-day needs of their parish by an adequate church and cemetery, they have bequeathed to thousands a powerful impression of the serenity and strength of the Christian Church, founded upon a rock, which neither wind nor wave shall destroy.

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