St. Decumans / Saint Decumans

INFORMATION

FontID: 07112DEC
Church/Chapel: Parish Church? [aka Old Minster?] [disappeared]
Church Patron Saints: St. Decuman [aka Decman, Decumanus, Degumanus, Degumen, Degyman, Tenen]
Church Location: [may have been located on the side of the Washford river valley, opposite the later church]
Country Name: England
Location: Somerset, South West
Directions to Site: Located near Watchet, between Blue Anchor Bay and St. Audrie's Bay
Ecclesiastic Region: Diocese of Bath & Wells
Historical Region: Hundred of Williton
Century and Period: 10th - 11th century, Pre-Conquest
No entry found for St. Decumans in the Domesday survey. The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (Somerset, vol. 5, 1985) includes three locations: St. Decumans, Watchet and Williton; it rafers to a church that was "probably Celtic in origin [...] Its original site seems to have been on the headland in or close to the Saxon burh [...] The site was evidently abandoned in favour of another on the opposite side of the Washford river valley in face of coastal erosion [...] The name Old Minster suggests that the church was a minster in origin, and still in the mid 12th century it had a dean and at least one dependent chapel". [cf. Index entry for Watchet for the font of the church of St. Decuman in Watchet]

REFERENCES

Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2018-03-28 00:00:00. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
Victoria County History [online], University of London, 1993-. Accessed: 2018-03-28 00:00:00. URL: https://www.british-history.ac.uk.
Cox, John Charles, English Church Furniture, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1907