by Colin Burbidge
For a good many years in the grounds of St. Olaves Murchington stood an old Cross. It was still marked there on the 1886 and 1890 Ordnance Survey map.
John Chudleigh’s book “Devonshire Antiquities” published in 1893 has an illustration of this cross as it stood against a wall at Murchington, showing a square tenon at the lower end of the shaft.
It was also mentioned in this extract from a small book “The Ancient Stone Crosses of Dartmoor”.
“A few years ago, in the garden of St. Olave's, a pleasantly situated residence,
then belonging to the Rev. W. T. A. Radford, rector of Down St. Mary,
was a fine old cross. It was not a Dartmoor cross, having been brought
from the parish of Bow, which is many miles distant. This was done,
I have been informed, by the Rev. J. Ingle, a former owner of the property.
About three years ago Mr. Radford sold St. Olave's to the Rev. A. G. Barker
and shortly afterwards, the rector of Down St. Mary, saying that Mr. Radford
had authorized him to remove the cross, took it away, to his own parish
and placed it in the churchyard there, where it now is.
There seems, however, to have been a misunderstanding somewhere,
as Mr. Barker afterwards ascertained that no permission to remove it had been given”.
This account is not entirely accurate. In 1896 the Rev. W.T.A. Radford died and was succeeded as Rector of Down St. Mary by the former missionary Bishop of Madagascar, Robert Kestell-Cornish.
In his Will Rev. Radford left his estate (gross value £15,000) and any property to his remaining son, who was also named William Tucker Arundel Radford.
Ancient Cross at Down St. Mary
In late August 1897 Rev. Kestell-Cornish officiated at the marriage of young Mr. William Radford to Mary Baker, daughter of Commander Robert Baker R.N.
By this time William Radford and his bride were living at St. Olaves Murchington. The Rev. Kestell-Cornish would have been familiar with St. Olaves and the ancient cross that was there. Rev. Kestell-Cornish had asked permission from William Radford (the younger) if he could acquire the ancient cross. To clarify the matter following the first inaccurate account Rev. Kestell- Cornish wrote to the periodical “Devon Notes & Queries”, with reference to the dubious circumstances connected with the removal of this cross from St. Olave's to the churchyard of Down St. Mary.
THE BOW - DOWN ST. MARY CROSS (Ancient Stone Crosses of Dartmoor, etc., D. N. & Q., p. 134.) where Bishop Kestell-Cornish is the Rector, the Bishop writes us:
“I see in the July number of Devon Notes and Queries an account of the removal of an old cross from St. Olave's, Murchington, to the churchyard of Down St. Mary.
This account is not quite accurate and implies that on a quasi-authority from Mr. Radford I removed the cross from St. Olave's and placed it in Down St. Mary Churchyard without any reference to Mr. Barker. But this is precisely what I did not do. I had been informed by a mutual friend that Mr. Radford would allow me to have the cross, but that I must remove it before a certain date, because on that day the property would pass out of his hands, and I felt that it would not be fitting or courteous to take any steps without consulting the prospective owner
This led to my sending a letter to Mr. Barker, who answered me most kindly, and at his invitation I drove over to St. Olave's for luncheon, and it was then and there agreed that I should send for the cross, which I should receive from Mr. Barker. This was done, and after some delay, owing to the remissness of the man employed to make the base, it was placed where it now stands. You will see, therefore, that I was most careful not to act upon Mr. Radford's kind offer of the cross without the full concurrence of the Rev. A. G. Barker.
The Cross can still be seen in Down St. Mary churchyard.