England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Lewtrenchard St Peter

The Parish

The parish of Lewtrenchard lies in western Devon roughly 8 miles east of the Cornish market town of Launceston. Lewtrenchard sits just over 2 miles south of the A30 road which links Exeter with Penzance. There are two settlements of substance within the parish Lewtrenchard, itself, being a mere hamlet of church, manor (now a hotel) and a few cottages lying in the incised valley of the River Lew, above on a hilltop is the larger village of Lewdown, a crossroads settlement clustering around an intersection of typical Devon lanes. The parish sits to the west of the mass of Dartmoor, the intrusion of igneous material generating slate from the compression of its arrival, that slate and the limestone of the area were quarried extensively with Lewtrenchard. In addition there was the typical pastoral farming of West Devon largely consisting of dairy cattle. Lewtrenchard is drained southwards by the Lew which soon meets the Lyd and turns westwards to also meet the Tamar at the Cornish border, the Tamar heads generally southwards through its meandering course to reach the English Channel to the west of Plymouth. Lewtrenchard is sited at 120 metres above the sea at the church but Lewdown stands at 180 metres in its hilltop, views eastwards first see Galford Down at 254 metres but beyond looms the heights of Dartmoor with Rattlebrook Hill reaching 541 metres. Lewtrenchard parish comprised roughly 2,500 acres making slightly smaller than the norm for this area, that acreage would have supported a population of around 500 parishioners. In Domesday times Lewtrenchard was a holding of the sheriff Baldwin and was a typical rural one offering 7 ploughs backed by meadows, pastures and woodland.

The Church

St Peter's church sits on a steep hillside at the bottom of the valley of the Lew, its sits almost opposite the entrance to the manor. St Peter was changed markedly by the formidable squire/rector of the parish, Sabine Baring-Gould variously antiquarian, hagiographer, folklore expert and amateur church architect. At its core St Peter is a product of the 15th and 16th centuries but it is difficult to discern the origins given the rector's changes. The basic structure is that of nave, chancel and western tower all augmented with a northern aisle, southwestern vestry and southern porch. Historic England identify a few Perpendicular elements in particular the 5-light southern window of the chancel and the 3-light eastern window of the northern aisle. The rector entered the parish in 1881 and soon began the rebuild of the church, the interior of the church received his particular attention creating both the wagon roofs for the nave & chancel and also the elaborate rood screen complete with its full rood loft. It is eccentric but nevertheless worth a visit in itself. Parking in the broad access drive for the hotel is straightforward, the churchyard rises steeply from the road with all of its southern aspects readily available for the sure-footed photographer.