WE ARE PART OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND 
​serving the parish of widworthy

"...be confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus”

Philippians 1:6

the history of st cuthbert's and widworthy

We are grateful to the devon historic churches trust for compiling the following history

devonchurchlands.co.uk

GENUKI DATABASE FOR WIDWORTHY

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Offwell, Widworthy and Farway Parish Churches all benefit from memorials and monuments which commemorate the lives of the Copleston family (St. Mary’s), the Marwood Eltons (St. Cuthbert’s) and the Prideauxs (St. Michael’s).

The rich history of Widworthy includes many notable Devonshire families, including the Marwood-Eltons. Thomas Marwood, physician to Queen Elizabeth, enjoyed great fame as a doctor, having cured the Earl of Essex in 1592 when the best London doctors had failed to do so. In the 19th century Sir Edward Marwood-Elton, the High Sherriff of Devon, commissioned the architect, G.S. Repton, to design Widworthy Court.

​St. Cuthbert’s contains many handsome monuments and memorials including one to James Marwood (who died in 1767), by the famous English sculptor John Bacon. Works by Bacon adorn both St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. Another memorial, in memory of James Marwood (1811), is by English sculptor, Peter Rouw the Younger, modeller of cameos and gems to the Prince Regent.
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Widworthy at war

Bravery comes in many a form, and being prepared to die for your friends is surely one of them.

Here in Widworthy, just uphill from the church, a few broken ventilation pipes, remnants of a dugout, remembering the courage of a couple of parish folk, Rev Frederick Coplestone and Stanley Lawrence who operated a top secret radio station from here.

They were part of the Special Duty Branch, Churchill’s Secret Army as it became known, who were trained to ferret out intelligence… troop movements, unit identifications, high-ranking officers… in the event of a Nazi invasion. They were to radio back this information from their ‘Out Station’ to a central point.

And an invasion was well expected, and as news filtered out of occupied Europe, they knew the savagery that would have come with that. In truth, the members of this Secret Army were not expected to last very long, there was another organisation for longer term resistance.

A simple thing, a minor thing even in the grand history of war and peace, but these folk and many another knew they were risking their lives and their families for the greater good.
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Death was not the worst that could happen.
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https://devonchurchland.co.uk/description/widworthy-church-of-st-cuthbert-description/#Widworthy-At-War

In the churchyard are the Dare family graves including three brothers who died in World War 1. The Dare family have a genealogical connection with Virginia Dare, born 20th August 1587 at Roanoke in Virginia (now North Carolina, USA), the first English child born in North America. A great heritage for a tiny church and one that deserves to be preserved for future generations.

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preserving and proclaiming

"the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”

1 Peter 5:10