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St Mary's Church at Molland, between Dulverton and North Molton, is a beautiful medieval building with arches askew learning at frightening angles. To gain entrance you have to push hard ona heavy oak door. It is a moorland church with furnishings mainly of the early Georgian period and the pews which are high sided and 'horse box' like. These box pews the grand pulpit and panelling are unchanged from the 18th century. The church is peaceful and charming - an absolute gem.
According to the little parish church guide, the last salaried parish clerk who held office between 1815-66, would sit on the hinged seat by the door,watching his flock. In these times the men and women would have been segregated, occupying opposite sides of the church. The clerk was equipped with a stave with a wooden ball at one end and feathers at the other. Any man who deigned to fall asleep during a service would receive the wooden ball on his head. Sleeping ladies similarly would be tickled with the feathered end.
A Heart Box is an intriguing addition to the church. Heart boxes are commonly associated with deaths abroad, particularly those of fallen crusaders. Where it was not viable to bring an entire body back from a hot and distant country, the heart was removed and shipped home for eventual entombment. The Heart Box in Molland church is reputed to hold the hearts of Courtenay family members, a name indelibly linked to the history of the village. On one of the church walls a poignant memorial reads: ’To the memory and to record the disastrous deaths of Thomas and Sarah Pincombe and their family of six, all of whom perished by shipwreck together with 187 of their fellow passengers. The calamitous event happened on the Manacle Rocks near the St. Keverne coast of Cornwall on the night of the 3rd May 1855, within six hours after the lamented victims had left the harbour of Plymouth, as emigrants on their voyage to Quebec’. It seems that the Pincombe family were never destined to leave Molland for a new life in Cananda.
The London Inn, Molland
Molland is an irregularly built village with an Inn next to the church called 'The London Inn' and a mainly 15th century Church which is unusual because it escaped restoration by the Victorians. Once Molland had copper mine which was closed around 1870. The name Molland is derived from moel meaning in Celtic land of bare hills.
Built in the 15th century as a coaching Inn, The London Inn still retains its rustic charm; open log fires, inglenooks and beamed ceilings. There is a legend that in the time of John Knight a gang of his miners who were quite happily drinking a weeks wages away were chased out of the London Inn by their angry wives who had marched all the way from Simonsbath
The copper and iron mines closed in the late 1870’s, and farms were deserted in the agricultural depression of the 1930’s. Sometimes the farms were rebuilt, only to be deserted again. The ruins of many a man’s labour can still be found scattered around Molland village, in the shape of ancient farmsteads and mines.
In 1804 the infamous hunting Parson Froude became vicar of Molland and Knowstone. He had a reputation as a tyrant and is said to have retained a private army of tenant farmers and labourers for terrorising his enemies.
For centuries the greater part of this charming and uncluttered little village has remained in the tenure of the Throckmorton family who continue to run the estate of approximately 6,800 acres today. The Domesday survey of 1086 identifies two separate manors at Molland; Molland Bottreaux and Molland Champson, each under separate ownership. By 1700 the two manors had merged and shortly after the Throckmorton family began their long tenure of Molland.
Between 1703 and 1890 the Quartly family carved out a name breeding Devon Red cattle in Molland, then considered some of the best draught oxen in the country.The Devon Red still grazes the Molland acres today
From White's Devonshire Directory (1850)
Sir Robert George Throckmorton, Bart., owns nearly all the parish, and is lord of the manor of Molland Bottreaux, anciently held by the Bottreaux family, and afterwards by the Hungerfords, whose heiress carried it in marriage to a younger branch of the Courtenays, who were seated here till 1732, when their heiress brought it to the Throckmortons. The Bottreaux family and succeeding owners had a mansion and park at West Molland. The manor house of Molland Champeaux, or Champion, was long the seat of the Columbs, and afterwards of the Courtenays. These fine old mansions are now occupied by Messrs. James and John Quartly, who are noted for their fine breed of North Devon cattle, for which they have obtained many prizes. The parish has much fine grass land, suitable for breeding, though the soil is generally thin, and rests upon rock. The Church (St. Mary,) is a handsome structure, in the perpendicular style, with a tower and four bells. It contains several neat monuments, belonging to the Courtenay and other families.
www.ndeva.co.uk/molland/ |
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