A wool church is an English church financed primarily by donations from rich merchants and farmers who had benefitted from the medieval wool trade , hoping to ensure a place in heaven due to their largesse.
21-602: Chudleigh ( / ˈ tʃ ʌ d l i / ) is an ancient wool town located within the Teignbridge District Council area of Devon , England ; it is sited between Newton Abbot and Exeter . The electoral ward with the same name had a population of 1,488 at the 2011 census . Chudleigh is located in the Teign Valley and is close to the edge of Dartmoor . Nearby Castle Dyke is an Iron Age hill fort which demonstrates far earlier settlement in
42-468: A 'wool church,' St. Agnes's scale is far grander than was required by a modest medieval village. And the Earl of Suffolk spared no expense in embellishing the interior: the de la Pole crest is carved above the entrance; French stone was used for the tower and nave; the roof, although the typical wooden East Anglian style, is an elaborate hammerbeam confection with elaborate angels curving off the beam ends, and
63-525: A bakery in Culver Street (now New Exeter Street). According to later reports, the staff in the bakery seemed unaware of the danger this posed, but the fire, fed by the exceptionally dry fuel, exploded. In the shortest time imaginable, the fire had spread to the roof of the bakery (thatched, as were 90% of the houses in Chudleigh at the time) and huge hunks of burning reed and straw were swept aloft by
84-525: A rapidly growing north-easterly wind. The fire destroyed around 180 of the 300 houses in the town. The church of St Martin and St Mary was consecrated in 1259. The structure is medieval but was heavily restored in 1868. The rood screen has paintings of saints and prophets and the Courtenay family coat of arms. In 1887, St Bridget's Abbey of Syon built a monastery, known as Chudleigh Abbey , which they occupied until 1925. Chudleigh Town Hall , which
105-467: A trio of angels on outstretched wings hovering over each clerestory window. Clearly in East Anglian medieval times, sheep furnished the currency for architectural atonement. At St. Mary's Church at Worstead , Norfolk, the village which gave its name to the cloth, the village church built by local weavers in the fourteenth-century towers over the small community, its tower jutting strikingly above
126-515: Is marked by the beauty of large churches known as wool churches built from the prosperity of the wool trade: Long Melford ’s Holy Trinity “is one of the most moving parish churches in England, large, proud and noble”, “so many thin, wiry perpendiculars”. Lavenham ’s St Peter & St Paul “is a match for Long Melford, “a perfect picture”. Clare ’s church of the same name: “all the windows of aisles and clerestory…are slender and closely set….
147-610: The area, having been displaced by what came to be known as the Hundred Years' War . Up to that time the English wool trade with the rest of Europe was mostly in the form of the export of raw wool. However, exports of woven cloth quickly replaced the export of raw wool (the latter being heavily taxed by Edward III to help finance the war) and those engaged in the trade began to amass great wealth. This wealth in Suffolk wool towns
168-507: The area. It is also near to Haldon Forest , a Forestry Commission property. The town has been bypassed by the A38 road since 1972. The weather conditions in Devon in the year 1807 have been described as a drought. Weeks without rain left many people short of water and had farmers worrying about their crops. At around noon on 22 May, a small fire broke out in a pile of furze stacked near the ovens at
189-736: The best of its date in the county". Several monuments to the Hunt family survive in the Hunt Aisle in Chudleigh church. The carnival takes place annually in the second week in July and lasts a week. Wool town A Wool town is a name given to towns and villages, particularly in Suffolk and north Essex , that were the centre of the woven cloth industry in the Middle Ages . They came to prominence when weavers from Flanders settled in
210-662: The builders of Holy Trinity is some of the finest in England. The church stands as testimony to the wool business and its dizzying success in medieval times. The Church of St. John the Baptist, Cirencester is the parish church for Cirencester, Gloucestershire. Dubbed 'The Cathedral of the Cotswolds', it is built of Cotswold stone and is one of the "largest parish churches in England". It contains various tombs and monuments with some fragments of medieval stained glass and wall paintings. In 1508, major reconstruction took place funded by
231-539: The fifteenth century in the prevailing style, dominates the small weaving village. It was financed largely by donations from two families; the Springs and the de Veres . St Peter's Church, Winchcombe is another fine example of a Cotswold Wool Church. Situated close to the site of the former Winchcombe Abbey , the church is built in Cotswold stone in the traditional Wool Church style. St Clement's Church, Ipswich
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#1732772970386252-610: The foot of the Haldon Hills , built in the 1770s by John Parker, 1st Baron Boringdon (1735–1788) of Saltram House , Plympton, Devon. Hams Barton is a grade II* listed building, formerly the seat of the Hunt family, situated one-mile north-east of the town, near Kate Brook. The Hunt family was settled there before the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603). Thomas Hunt (d.1548) was thrice Mayor of Exeter , including in 1517 and 1537. A fine banqueting room survives, called by Pevsner "the sumptuous first-floor great chamber, one of
273-508: The landscape. In other East Anglian communities, the wealth from wool poured in: Wymondham , Diss , North Walsham , East Harling , Attleborough , Aylsham . The churches basked in the refracted glory of wool wealth. Even in Norwich , which boasts more medieval churches than anywhere in Europe, it was wool money that got the stone lifted, the glass stained and the panels carved. Norfolk wool
294-521: The peak of the English wool trade have retained many of their medieval buildings: Clare “now an exceptionally attractive small town”, Long Melford “a rich legacy” with “two fine Tudor mansions”; Lavenham “rightly celebrated”, “There is nothing in Suffolk to compete with the timber-framed houses of Lavenham”, Hadleigh's “High Street is remarkable for having retained nearly all of its oldest buildings unspoilt while remaining busy and commercial”. The term has also been used to refer to other towns involved in
315-561: The same erectness…very airy”. Hadleigh ’s St Mary “Churchyard contains the town’s most spectacular buildings, and if one treats the church as essentially C15, then those three buildings belong to the same century but could hardly be more different from one another: one built of stone, one of timber, and one of brick. The Market Hall….the church…the Deanery Tower.” Several of the towns in East Anglia that were prosperous during
336-548: The simultaneous decline of the wool trade between 1525 and 1600. The Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford , Suffolk, is widely regarded as one of the finest wool churches in East Anglia. Built largely from 1467–1497 with funding from local cloth merchants, primarily John Clopton, the structure contains magnificent stained glass from the fifteenth century, the Clopton family chantry chapel and the soaring Lady Chapel, which extends at Holy Trinity's east end. The Flushwork employed by
357-465: The wool trade making it an excellent example of a Wool church. Another grand Suffolk church is St. Edmunds in Southwold which retains medieval chancel screens. St. Agnes' Church at Cawston, Norfolk is also well known as a "wool church." Its fifteenth century nave and western tower were financed by Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk , who had grown rich from the wool business. As is typical of
378-474: The wool trade. The English Wool Market, c.1230–1327 includes York , Boston , Winchester and Hull in the group, and it has also been applied to towns in the Cotswolds and Yorkshire. Wool church Wool churches are common in the Cotswolds and in the " wool towns " of upland East Anglia , where enormous profits from the wool business spurred construction of ever-grander edifices. A wool church
399-455: Was best suited to heavier cloth, and so Norwich and Norfolk eventually gained almost a complete monopoly on worstead. Those profits fueled an extraordinary ecclesiastical building boom. At Lavenham , Suffolk, the striking Perpendicular church is one of England's largest parish churches. With its monumental flint and limestone tower, the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul , largely rebuilt in
420-605: Was designed in the Italianate style , dates from 1865. Various historic estates are situated in the parish of Chudleigh, including: Property of the Clifford family since 1604, Ugbrooke is an important stately house and family seat of the Barons Clifford of Chudleigh (a title created in 1672). Whiteway House is a Grade II* listed Georgian house set in parkland 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 miles north of Chudleigh, at
441-485: Was often built to replace a smaller or less imposing place of worship, in order to reflect the growing prosperity of the community in which it was situated. Many such building projects were undertaken by a small number of families in each village or town, who used the new church building to display their own wealth, status and faith. The building of wool churches largely ended with the English Reformation and
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