Crediton

Very few Britons have managed to become fully-fledged Saints, so Crediton is rather proud that one of this small and distinguished group, St Boniface, was born here around AD680. The infant was baptised as Wynfrith but on becoming a monk he adopted the name Boniface. He rose swiftly through the ranks of the Benedictine Order and in AD731 was sent by the then pope to evangelise the Germans. Boniface was remarkably successful, establishing Christianity in several German states. At the age of 71, he was created Archbishop of Mainz, but three years later he and 53 members of his retinue were ambushed and murdered. They were on their way to the great monastery at Fulda in Hesse, which Boniface had founded and where he was laid to rest.

Boniface was greatly revered throughout Germany and a few years later the pope formally pronounced his sanctification, but it was to be almost 1200 years before the town of his birth accorded him any recognition. Finally, in 1897, the people of Crediton installed an east window in the town’s grand, cathedral-like Church of the Holy Cross depicting events from his life. A few years later, a statue of the saint was erected in the gardens to the west of the church.

The interior of the early 15th-century church is especially notable for its monuments, which include one to Sir John Sully who fought alongside the Black Prince and lived to the age of 105, and another to Sir William Peryam, a commissioner at the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots. Most impressive of all, though, is the richly ornamented arch in memory of Sir Henry Redvers Buller, commander-in-chief during the Boer War and the hero of the Relief of Ladysmith. Also of interest is the Lady Chapel of 1300, which housed Crediton’s famous grammar school from the time of Edward VI until 1859 when it moved to its present site at the western end of the High Street.