Church of St Gregory the Great

Harpford was a crossing point of the River Otter in Roman times and it was the principal settlement for the area well into the middle ages. It is believed that a timber church existed on the site in the Anglo Saxon period and it was probably replaced by a simple stone structure after the Norman invasion in the 11th C. The church and its lands were granted to the Abbey of Mont St. Michel in 1205 and recovered to Syon Abbey (Middlesex) in 1411. The tower was probably added in the 15th C and the north aisle some time later, with an internal gallery. The Chancel and Vestry were also added sometime after the tower but there is no evidence as to when. A graffiti date of 1599 is scribed into the aisle column nearest the tower.

By the beginning of the 1800’s the church had become very dilapidated and, with the exception of the tower, it was extensively renovated in 1884 when the gallery and the pulpit sounding board were removed. This resulted in the internal appearance of the church now being more Victorian rather than medieval. The pews are all in mellowed pine and probably date from the period of renovation. The tower has six bells, the oldest of which was cast in the 1700’s and they are all in regular use and hung on a steel frame. We have a continuous record of the Vicars from 1208 until the present time, some of them having interesting histories, including Augustus Toplady who wrote the well known hymn ‘Rock of Ages’ in the 1760’s.

The churchyard contains 137 marked graves, of which the oldest is 1785. There are also four inside the church, the oldest is dated 1682 and belongs to Thomas Channon, one of the earlier Vicars. A schedule of all the marked graves is available in the Nave together with a plan of the church and graveyard.

The church has an unusual furnace pit, complete with furnace and tools, covered with a metal grid in the middle of the Nave. This probably predates the Victorian renovations as there is no evidence of a chimney flue anywhere.