| Summary: | The historical evidence suggests the existence of an important ecclesiastical centre at Cullompton which in the ?10th and 11th century took the form of a Collegiate Church which served as a Minster church for a wide area, which might relate to the later Hundred of Hayridge
The earliest mention of Cullompton is in Alfred the Great's will of c881. The church of Cullompton is listed as a separate holding in Domesday Book, held by Battle Abbey. Its separate listing suggests it was of important status. Considered that Cullompton was a royal holding and a minster. The church was a prebendal one supported by the holdings of Upton, Weaver, Colebrook, Hineland (Henland) and Ash.
Like many minsters Cullompton was deprived of its income by annexation in the 11th century; the church with its prebends was given to Battle Abbey and with the transfer of the church and its endowments to St. Nicholas Priory, Exeter in the late 11th or 12th century it seems likely that it ceased to be a collegiate church.
The present parish church appears to be a medieval structure but probably occupies the same site as the Saxon minster church. The topography of the church is interesting. It is set in a small squarish enclosure set well back from the main street on a promontory above the flood plain of the Culm. This enclosure has all the appearances of a precinct or Close and maybe a survival of the early layout when the church was perhaps surrounded by canons houses. The present churchyard wall does not appear to be old and the churchyard is fairly low, apart from the north-east corner. This area of the precinct, however, has been disturbed by the construction of the 19th century vicarage. The buildings on the east and south sides are earlier dating to the 17th century. The area around the church does not appear to have been impinged upon by burgage plots which further north extend to the mill leat. It is possible that the church originally lay within a larger enclosure and it is considered significant that there is a kink in the mill leat at the proposed north-east corner. |
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