East Portlemouth St. Winwaloe's Church

The first known reference to East Portlemouth church was in July 1181 in a Bull of Pope Alexander III listing the churches owned by Missenden Abbey.

It is not known when the Abbey acquired St Winwaloe’s but Lady Alice de Dodbrooke successfully claimed it back in 1219.

The original church had the form of a cross (cruciform) with a nave, chancel and transepts but no tower.

The tower was built between 1400 and 1450 and the two side aisles were added shortly after, followed by the porch. Other changes were made to bring the church into the perpendicular Gothic style. The church contains a beautiful late 15th century rood screen with 26 paintings of saints.

It seems likely that there would have been an earlier wooden church on this site. This may have been built in the early 10th century, perhaps during the reign of King Athelstan, King Alfred’s grandson. Athelstan had close contacts with Brittany, the birth-place of St. Winwaloe (462-532) who was a Celt whose parent had fled to Brittany from Wales to escape the Anglo-Saxons. After St. Winwaloe’s death, monks came to Devon and Cornwall and founded monasteries and churches although it seems unlikely that these included East Portlemouth’s.