Page:Devon and Cornwall Queries Vol 9 1917.djvu/100

 ^i ni 74 Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries. years before the date of the present building), in the survey of the Diocese of Exeter, it is referred to as "St._Mary's Xup ■ f^.'^. ChAilch, Te^ngrace," and the Ordnance Maps and Kelly's • ' Directories still call it by that name. Rough notes of Exeter Diocesan Architectural Society, 1848, sheet 12, gives Teyngrace Church as dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul. The faculty for pulling down the old building is at the Diocesan Registry, Exeter, and the licence for holding services in the new building is extant there also. The licence gives permission to hold services in the new building then erected until such time as that new building should be consecrated. The Act of Consecration (the instrument) would neces- sarily mention the dedication, but no such instrument can be found. This might be thought as tending to prove that by some oversight the present building had never been consecrated. This would appear, however, to be a mistake. The case does not stand alone. A similar case occurs where, however, a supplementary document, in that instance, explained matters. In this case there was also a licence to hold services till the new building was consecrated. A later document was issued revoking this Licence as being unnecessary since the new building was built on the old site. This is in accordance with the ecclesiastical standpoint, which is, that if a new church is built upon the old foundations of a church already consecrated, no further consecration of that new church is permissible. Hence the other document revoking the condition that services could only by licence be held till the new building was consecrated. The case of Teigngrace is exactly similar. A stone over the west doorway alludes to the site as being "consecrated forages" to the worship of God, evidently referring to that site as the site of the old church, and, indeed, some of the old materials are in the present building. It would appear, therefore, that in the case of Teigngrace also, the licence with its condition of consecration, was issued in error, and that hence it is we can find no instrument of subsequent consecration. By some misfortune, however, the document revoking that licence was either never issued or has been lost.