| Description: | A church dedicated to St Thomas is included in the list of Exeter Churches of Peter de Palerna, dating to c.1214 (Rose-Troup 1923, vi). In view of the later existence of a chapel of this dedication to the west of the river, it seems reasonable to accept that a chapel of some sort was in existence in the early 13th century (especially since the construction of the bridge c.1200 provided the context for both this chapel and that dedicated to St Edmund at the east end of the bridge; cf. Monument No. 11024). A church for the parishioners of Cowick was certainly in existence by 1257 at the latest, when a ‘chapel of St Thomas the Martyr at the end of Exe Bridge’ is mentioned (Cresswell 1908, 168); this was still, presumably, a chapel of ease of the mother church of St Andrew at Cowick Priory (on the site of Cowick Barton, in Cowick Lane; Cowick is the Domesday name of one of the two manors to the west of the river, the other being Exwick; both lay in the parish of Cowick, later to become St Thomas). The coincidence with the chapel named in 1214-5 (above) suggests that the chapel of St Thomas was established soon after the construction of the bridge itself (St Thomas of Canterbury was canonised in 1173, only three years after his martyrdom). The earliest vicar of the church is named in 1261 (Cresswell 1908, 168). The site of the chapel was probably on the corner of Alphington Street, somewhat to the south of the actual bridgehead (Henderson 1985, Fig. 3; Recognition Event No. 3817). The church continued on this site until the early 15th century, when it was washed away in a flood (a constant hazard in this position); a new church was constructed some 400m to the south west and consecrated in October 1412 (Cresswell 1908, 169; Monument No. 11144). Fragments of medieval floor tiles and stone architectural fragments found in the excavation at Cowick Street in 1984 were attributed to the medieval chapel of St Thomas at the bridgehead, although they could, presumably have also come from structures on this site (Henderson [ed.] 1984, 28; cf. Monument No. 11148). |
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