Coffinswell Devon
Church of St Bartholomew, Coffinswell Devon  
The village seems to have developed as a settlement beside the springs (one perhaps a sacred well) where the lands of 2 agricultural Manors of that time met.   - Tavistock Manor to the north east owned from Saxon times by the Abbey of Tavistock who leased the land to a succession of tenant gentry.  The other on the north and west known as the Lay Manor as it never belonged to the Church.   In 1086 Lay Manor was held by Radulph Paganel and the Exeter doomsday survey of this year places both Manors in &quot;Willa / Wille&quot;.
c1155 with the advent of the third manor of Daccombe to the south east, a site for a church was chosen where all 3 manorial boundaries came together and in 1191 the name of the area is givenas Wille et Daccumbe.    (Later Church records of 1193 name it Willa et Daggecumba and a deed of 1225 mentions de Welle de Dacum).
c 1230 the Coffyn family acquired Lay Manor and by 1282 the Manor was called Welle Coffyn.

A visitation of 1301 reported that the chapel had a good missal with musical notes, an old gradale, a good troparium and ordinale, a legenda and psalter, an old monastic antiphonale, a manuale and hymnale. A fairly good chalice, gilt inside. Two complete sets of vestments and two alb, nine altar cloths. a thurible, wooden chrismatory and a wooden pyx for the eucharist without a lock. Also 2 surplices and a rochet, a lenten veil. a processional cross, two cruets &amp; 2 bells for the dead..
By 1326 it was clearly differentiated from the Tavistock Manor by is name of Coffinswille, and consisted of the village of Coffinswell and the hamlet of Daccombe.

The Norman font <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/7iNSyHF4ZM">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/7iNSyHF4ZM</a> survives from the original building of c 1159 which was an oblong thatched structure of stone or cob with a small south chapel to the east, with narrow unglazed Norman windows . 
It now consists of a continuous nave &amp; chancel (the waggon roof extending from the east end to the west), a north aisle divided from the nave by 4 arches supported on columns with carved capitals, a small transept, north porch, and west tower 

The earliest part now is the 70ft red sandstone two stage tower, now dark roughcast,  dating to c1220, its walls 2.0 metres thick and not quite square with the nave  It has 6 bells; (two being of pre-Reformation date (Henry Vll) inscribed in Old English lettering:&quot; Protege Virgo Pia quos Sancta Maria&quot; (Protect us, Virgin Pious, Holy Mary;) ; two date from 1626 and 1637, and have the inscription: &quot;Soli Deo detur gloria&quot; (Glory is given to God alone;) ; the latter was recast in 1894 when a fifth bell was added with the inscription: Sit Deo gloria&quot; (To God be the glory) .; the sixth bell was added in 1904.

Glass windows in the decorated style were inserted mid-14c when a small south transept was built . A three-light granite window in the south-west corner near the tower was added in the 15c
The north aisle erected late 15c with 14c style windows was also thatched and a broad trench around it caught the rain dropping off the thatch.   The most westerly column dividing it from the nave has several coats of arms which refer to the Holbeame family and their connections (Scobahull, Leyton, and Gambon). This suggests that the aisle was erected by John Holbeame, a local gentleman who died in 1473. 

The chancel altar was at St Mary church before 1855, one of the several copies made in wood of the high altar in Cologne cathedral. An older oak table altar with carved sides stood in the vestry but was removed in 1925 to the chapel of the retreat house at West Ogwell. The altar rails of oak are carved in the Gothic style.  <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/9t90prBH82">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/9t90prBH82</a>

The vestry was built in 1820, blocking the west window of the north aisle.  inside are preserved the old stocks,  remarkable for the fact that the board with the holes for the feet is flat instead of upright, so that the prisoners would either have to stand in them, or sit in a very cramped position.  The old parish chest with slits for coins and two iron clasps for double locking. is also kept here, and some pieces of lead with foot and hand marks on them.  ( It is said at one time visitors to the roof used to amuse themselves by tracing the shape of their hands and feet on the lead covering, and when the rood was re-leaded these shapes were preserved).  <a href="https://devonhistoricgraffiti.org.uk/coffinswell-st-bartholomew/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">devonhistoricgraffiti.org.uk/coffinswell-st-bartholomew/</a>

The vestry has recently been refurbished with the facilities of kitchenette and WC, allowing for concerts and communal events to take place here

A fine granite cross in the churchyard was found supporting a cattle shed in the village. <a href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/7Upg0S0o53">www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/7Upg0S0o53</a> 

The registers date: baptisms, 1560; marriages, 1560; burials, 1561.

Near the church is Court Barton, a manor house of partly 16c date;  the southern part of which was used as a court house by Torre Abbey.  There are many traditional cob and thatch cottages of which 29 are listed.  

Picture with thanks - copyright <a href="https://www.coffinswell-pc.co.uk/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.coffinswell-pc.co.uk/</a>
coffinswell church devon