[Bell Historians] Peculiars

[Andrew Wilby]

I cautiously offer Lundy for consideration as a Peculiar then on the 
basis of what has been said.

The island itself was outside territorial waters until the 12 mile limit 
was introduced. [It is 11.75mls off Hartland Point!]
It was then "Lundy Island, Bristol Channel" and not part of the county 
of Devon.

The 1974 local Government Act specifically included it into Devon.

The Ecclesiastical history is more confusing and possibly unclear.

The patronage of the church was at one time with Cleeve Abbey but after 
the dissolution it may have passed with Cleeve's lands to the Yelverton 
family or more likely was assumed to revert to the owner of Lundy at the 
time.

William Hudson Heaven assumed that ,as owner and Lord of the Manor, the 
patronage was his.

In 1922 WHH caused the Revd HH Lane to be collated the "The Rectory of 
the Parish Church of Lundy Island" by the Bishop of Exeter and inducted 
by the Archdeacon.

When the Registrar General in London heard of it he challenged the 
Legality of the Bishops action stating that according to his records the 
island had for centuries been held to be an Extra Parochial Place both 
for Civil and Ecclesiastical purposes.

The Bishop did not back down it appears but neither did the Registrar. 
However from 13 August 1912 the church was licensed under the 
Extra-Parochial Places Act 1857 and a Parish register commenced.

The issue re-surfaced recently when we were contemplating obtaining a 
Faculty to do something about the clock.

The Diocese of Exeter act on the assumption that the island is under 
their jurisdiction based on the exercise of their administration over a 
number of years. However whilst Lundy was incorporated into the County 
of Devon I do not believe that it has ever been incorporated into the 
Diocese of Exeter.

However, before the Hudson family sold the island, the Church and its 
two acres of land were given to the Church Commissioners to hold in 
trust for the residents of the island. The church definitely does not 
belong to the Diocese.

This produces and interesting situation as it could be argued that there 
are technically no residents on the island any more, only employees of 
Landmark Trust living on the job with no rights of residence.

The Church Commissioners insist that they are only holding Trustees with 
no financial responsibility whatsoever but insist on consulting 
surviving members of the Hudson family about faculty matters!

One might think that the Diocese might wish to tidy up this situation 
one way or another but it seems not!

The clock needs a solution still but to enter into another round of 
endless correspondence with consultees with no money, no understanding 
of the facts and no vision of the future but the apparent right of veto, 
subject to the view of the Chancellor of course, is a rather daunting 
prospect!

It is certainly a peculiar situation!

Andrew