Devon (England) -- Antiquities; Devon (England) -- History
After the prison was discontinued as a war prison, various schemes were
started for utilising the buildings. The late Prince Consort visited the
Duchy Estates in 1846, and the question of making use of the old prison
came under his notice. In 1850 began the formation of a Convict
Settlement, and gradually the old buildings have been pulled down so
that now only one small portion, known as the French Prison, remains. As
a convict prison all the prisoners—and the average is about one
thousand—are those who have been sentenced to penal servitude. Many are
sent specially to Dartmoor for the benefit of their health, the climate,
in the early stages of chest complaint, being most efficacious. Medical
officers of the prison and elsewhere have from time to time recorded
their opinion of the great advantages which are derived by phthisical
patients from residence at such an altitude above the sea-level.
Much of the information derived is from Capt. Vernon Harris’ pamphlet,
Rowe’s _Dartmoor_, 3rd Edition, published in 1896, and from the various
references thereto. Some of the statistics are contained in the writer’s
paper on the prison printed in the transactions of the Devonshire
Association, 1901, xxiii. pp. 309–321.
J. D. PRICKMAN.
OTTERY ST. MARY AND ITS
MEMORIES.
BY THE RIGHT HON. LORD COLERIDGE, M.A., K.C.
If the traveller passing down the Vale of Otter by rail looks out to the
East, he will see a great grey church with transeptal towers—a rare
feature—one crowned with a spire, standing on rising ground backed by a
great continuous chine of hill. Around the church nestles a small town,
and a clear, swift river hastens by it to the sea. This is the
Collegiate Church of Ottery St. Mary, mainly the creation of Bishop
Grandisson. Edward the Confessor gave the Manor of Ottery St. Mary in
1061 to the Chapter of the Cathedral Church of Rouen, in Normandy.
Bishop Grandisson bought the Manor in 1335, laid the foundations of the
college for forty secular monks, and amplified the church to suit the
college. Bishop Bronescombe consecrated a church here in 1260. His work
is seen in the nave and transepts of the present building. Bishop
Grandisson built the nave, lady chapel and side chapels, etc., raised
the towers over the transepts, and covered the whole with a
stone-groined roof. The church left his hands a miniature cathedral. A
wealthy lady, Cicely Bonville, wife, first of the Marquis of Dorset, and
then of Henry Lord Stafford, added the north aisle—1503–1523—with its
grand fan-tracery groining, a purely indigenous feature, which may be
seen repeated at Cullompton, and the whole result is a majesty and
variety of external elevation which no building of its size can well
surpass. It was the central figure of a group of buildings.
Chapter-house, library, cloisters, gate-house, all were there. The
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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