Buckland in the Moor is a village and
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
in the
Teignbridge
Teignbridge is a local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based in the town of Newton Abbot. The district also includes the towns of Ashburton, Buckfastleigh, Dawlish, Kingsteignton and Teignmouth, along with numerous vi ...
district of
Devon
Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...
, England.
According to the 2001 census it had a population of 94. The village is in
Dartmoor
Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, South West England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers .
The granite that forms the uplands dates from the Carb ...
.
According to
Elias Tozer
Elias Tozer (21 November 1825 – 13 December 1873) was a Devon journalist, poet and collector of folk stories.
Life
Elias Tozer was born on 21 November 1825 in Exeter.
For many years he was a reporter for the ''Western Times'', an Exeter paper.
...
(1825–1873) a ritual until recently had been observed in the village of Buckland-in-the-Moor on Midsummer Day in which the youth of the village would sacrifice a sheep on the block of granite and sprinkle themselves with the blood. He could not find what the significance of the ritual was, but says it was thought to have pre-Christian Celtic origins.
The church is made of stone quarried on the moor. The face of the clock spells out "My Dear Mother". The baptismal font is Norman, and decorated with leaves and stars. Nearby is a viewpoint called Buckland Beacon, where the Ten Commandment Stones can be found (1282 ft).
In 1927 the Lord of Buckland Manor, Mr Whitley, learnt that parliament had rejected a proposed revision of the
Book of Common Prayer
The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the title given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christianity, Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The Book of Common Prayer (1549), fi ...
using
Jesus
Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
' Two Commandments instead of Moses' Ten, at Holy Communion.
He celebrated by engaging Mr W A Clements, a stonemason from Exeter, to engrave granite stones in situ on Buckland Beacon with the Ten Commandments. He started work on 15 December 1927 and completed the job on 14 June 1928. Whilst engraving the stones he lived in a cow shed on the site and was supplied each week with a loaf of bread by Mr Whitley.
In later years Mr Clements said, "Day after day I was on my knees chipping away and I wondered if the originator of the Commandments suffered from an aching back and sore knees as I did". A glance at the stones reveals eleven commandments, the eleventh inscribed, "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another. John 13 v34."
References
External links
Villages in Devon
{{Devon-geo-stub