Huccaby Church, Dartmoor: Inkwells, Pews & Teaching
Last Updated on 9th November 2021 by Sophie Nadeau
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Wander down a little narrow lane in the very heart of Dartmoor, and you’ll stumble across a church with an unusual function. Surrounded by woodlands and little else, the Huccaby Church of Saint Raphael is not only a place of worship for a dedicated congregation of churchgoers but also a small chapel school.
In this part of the moors, it’s easy to get lost. Narrow lanes wind deep into the countryside and each road looks just enough like the last to really confuse you. There’s no phone signal.
But then again, it’s on these kinds of adventures that you manage to stumble upon places such as this. Small gems, frozen in time. This small chapel has stood, as is, since it was built in the late 19th-century. And it has barely changed in all that time.
Huccaby Church: A Place of Learning
In 1868, the district of Huccaby lay in the very midst of a Dartmoor forest. It consisted of a few houses and even fewer farmsteads. The residents of this small community were expected to make the arduous (and in wet weather, downright dangerous) trek to Lydford to attend church.
If the children of the local farmers wanted to attend school, they too were expected to make the journey to Lydford. By road, this trip is just under twenty miles long. As a result, few of the children from the farms were able to attend school on a regular basis.
The rector of Lydford saw this problem and thought about how to rectify it. He had Huccaby Church built so that the worshippers would not have so far to travel on a Sunday.
Now, of course, since as early as the 3rd and 4th centuries the church have been vital instruments in the dissemination of knowledge and information. During the week, the back of the chapel was therefore transformed into a schoolhouse for the children of local farmers.
A visit to Huccaby Chapel and Schoolhouse today
Sadly, the Rector’s dreams of a flourishing school house never came to fruition. In wet weather, the children still found it hard to reach the little schoolhouse/ chapel. Roads were muddy and crossing streams and fields almost impossible in such bad conditions.
When the weather was good, the children were expected to stay at home and help out on the farm; meaning that they again couldn’t attend classes. By 1924, the chapel was closed. Poor attendance as a result of the chapel’s bad location was the main reason why.
Today, the desks, which can be folded down into pews still stand at the back of the church. The once open fireplace which was the sole means of heating the place has been replaced with a wood burning stove. Inkwells are still in the desks, a chalkboard is all that remains to tell the tale of a once ambitious dream…
Although the school at the back of the church is officially closed, the building itself is open during daylight hours throughout the week and services are held on special occasions.
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