Page:Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries.djvu/288

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Devon NoUs and Querus. 209 167. Hele Satchvil, Helb Coding. — Can some legal gentleman authoritatively inform me in what parish the above manors lie ? They are in Shebbear Hundred, as I know, but the map is strewn with Hele's, and guesswork is of no value. Oswald J. Reichel. 168. HoNEYCHURCH. — This quaiut little church, which is about to be restored, lies in a remote district north-west of North Tawton. The Bishop of Crediton, in an appeal to antiquaries and archaeologists for subscriptions in aid of its restoration, says that "this edifice is one of the few Early English churches in Devonshire — ^perhaps the only one — that was left almost untouched by the church builders and church restorers of the fifteenth and six- teenth centuries; and consequently we have here sur- viving until to-day, but in imminent danger of absolute destruction, a building with ^ome of the most beautiful and most interesting specimens of the ecclesiastical architecture of the twelfth century and perhaps even earlier." The building is small, measuring only about 15 ft. in breadth by 40 ft. in length, exclusive of the tower, which stands at the west end, and opens into the nave by a lofty arch of early date. In fact, the tower is the earliest part of the fabric, and is itself of two periods, the long and short work of the projection con- taining the newel staircase, on the north side, indicating the earlier portion. There are three bells (i) 21 inches in dia- meter, inscribed 5. ufid sapo vocq di. ; (2) 27 inches in diameter, inscribed {P)lebs ois plaudit ut me tarn sepius audit; (3) 30^ inches in diameter, inscribed Est michi collatum ihc istud nomen amatum/^ [The first inscription requires deciphering. Per- haps some reader of Devon Notes and Queries will throw some light on its meaning.] The church consists of a nave and chancel, separated from each other by an Early English granite arch, and a south porch. There are no indications of the existence at any time of a rood screen. The main ribs of the waggon-roof are carved in foliage as well as the bosses. In the north wall, immediately west of the chancel arch, there is a niche, which probably at one time contained an image of the Virgin Mary, to whom the church is dedicated. The only •See Ellacombc'i Church Bells of Dcvon^ Exeter Dio. Arch. Soc, Series II., Vol. I., p. 341. P