THE CHURCH OF ST. PETER TREBOROUGH

Treborough is very probably the Third highest church in all Southern England and this suggests that the site is of great antiquity. It could well be that a wooden church or churches existed in Saxon times. It is a fact, however, that Treborough is not mentioned in the Taxation of Pope Nicholas IV of 1291 which is regarded as a complete list of existing churches. The Bishop's Registers show the first induction of a rector in 1322 but this, of course, does not exclude the possibility of a Church well before this date.

St Peters Church Treborough Somerset

Treborough Church plaque unveiled May 16th 1920

The church, perpendicular in style, was very largely reconstructed in the second quarter of the nineteenth century before which there had been a porch and entrance at the west end and when no doubt the tower was given its present pyramid roof.

The 500 year old font has an octagonal basin supported by an angel at each angle and is ornamented in deep relief. There is a little medieval piscina on a pedestal in the north wall of the chancel.  The wooden pulpit is older than the Reformation.

Treborough Church

In the tower there are three bells, one pre-Reformation bearing the inscription in Gothic characters "Ave Maria Gratia Plena" and below the initials R.S., the second bears the date 1634 and the inscription "I sound to bid the sick repent in hope of life when breath is spent'; the third has the date A.D. 1906 and the inscription "Ad Gloriam Dei'; "Walter W. Joyce, Rector, H.R. Bishop, D. W. Bishop Churchwardens".

In the churchyard is a medieval stone cross said to date from the late XIII century, though its state of preservation suggests it may well be a replacement. Certainly Savage in 1830 stated that the shaft had gone and Pooley in "Old Stone Crosses" 1877 says "The carved piece of stone (lying on the displaced steps) is supposed to be the head of the cross".

In one corner of the churchyard is re-interred a pre-historic skeleton whose slate-lined grave was uncovered under a small round barrow in Langridge Wood in 1820 by men seeking stone for road repairs. This barrow dating from between 1500 and 2000 B.C. contained the only known stone-lined grave now visible on Exmoor, it lies about 1200 yards NNE of the church.

The church was designated a Grade II Listed Building in 1969, and the cross Grade II in 1985

The Rector and Churchwardens are indebted to Mr. E. F. Williams of the neighbouring Parish of Luxborough for this short history.