St Pancras
Widecombe in the Moor, Devon
St Pancras is the centrepiece of Widecombe village and is very obvious from any direction, especially when approaching from the east, down Widecombe Hill.
According to William Crossing, the great Dartmoor writer, it was built on the site of some very old ruined cottages that were thatched with rye straw.
St Raphael's was designed to act both as a place of worship on Sundays and as a schoolhouse during the week. The scholars's desks remain in place today and are used as pews.
A memorial on the south wall is dedicated to the memory of Olive Louise Munday, who died in 1960 and was a member of the Burnard family who lived at Huccaby House. She was the eldest daughter of Robert Burnard, the Dartmoor enthusiast and writer, and also mother of the late Lady Sylvia Sayer, the former patron of the Dartmoor Preservation Association.
To the left of the altar is a small brass plaque, given by the parishoners in memory of Heathcote Smith, the first actual vicar of Huccaby, 1913 - 1914. The 'Good Shepherd' window behind the altar was donated by the Adams family of Huccaby, in memory of Edward Arthur Adams, who died in 1888 aged 11 years.
The picture of St Raphael that hangs in the church is a photograph of a famous wood carving by the 16th century sculptor Viet Stoss entitled, 'The Archangel Raphael with the child Tobias'. He carved it for the church of St Jakob in Nuremburg in 1516. The original carving is in the Gernanisches Museum there.