Hartland Abbey, Devon, part I
A seat of Sir Hugh and Lady Stucley
MARVELLOUSLY situated in a tranquil valley along the rugged Atlantic coast of Devon, Hartland Abbey seems at first glance like a Regency house in the Gothic style so beloved by the late-Georgian squirearchy of Britain. Behind its crenellated façade and pointed windows, however, there is a much deeper history, one which extends all the way back to the emergence of Christianity in western Britain.
In fact, at nearby Stoke—the site of Hartland’s medieval parish church (Fig 4)—there is evidence for a small early religious site, focused around the cult and relics of a local hermit, Nectan. By the time of the Norman Conquest, this had emerged as a major English ‘minster’, served by a body of priests, or ‘secular’ canons. In the 1160s, the old-established community was disbanded, to be replaced by ‘regular’ canons, the term relating to their observance of the quasi-monastic rule attributed in the Middle Ages to St Augustine of Hippo (d. 430). Their new abbey, dedicated to St Nectan, was built on the very spot now occupied by the Georgian house (Fig 1).
In seeking to
