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The church of St Decuman in Watchet was built by two of the Knights who murdered Thomas a Becket and developed in the 15th Century by the Wyndham family.
It has many fine features including a rood screen, and a wagon roof encircled with carved angels.
The water of the ancient well, just below the church, is held to be sacred, and provides a place where visitors may meditate in peace.
St Decuman's Church Well
Holy Wells aresprings where
the waters have been refined by the Earth's energies, minerals and other properties before bubbling to the surface. Water is the source of life. Man has used this site for rituals of baptism,
cleansing and for the water's natural healing energies. This ancient Well was sacred to the Pagan Celts who worshipped here before the (Christian monk St Decuman
settled in "Wacced". Decuman came from Rhoscrowther in South Wales. He
had one foot in the Pagan world and one in the Christian. The tolerance between Pagans and Christians of long ago is rarely found today.
St Decuman's Church Watchet
Photo supplied by Dave Sorrell
hen Somerset became Christian and Paganism went into decline, the Well was adopted by the Christians of Watchet The earliest account of Dccuman's martyrdom reads: "/\ certain man... more poisonous than the adder, envying the great father's sanctity, hating virtue and raging with furious mind in detestation of the Christian name, approached like a wild beast and cut off the head of the Saint or the f_ord amid his prayers and holy devotions and so sent him to the heavenly kingdom." Later the legend grew that Decuman's sanctity and the Well's sacred powers enabled him to carry his head to the Holy Well, wash it, place it back on his shoulders and carry on with his sacred work !
St. Decuman's Church present church is mainly in the Perpendicular style, except for the chancel, which belongs to the 13th century. It was preceded by other "church buildings, the last of which appears to have been a Norman church with a central tower and transepts. The existence of that church accounts for some of the features still visible in the present building, and the evidence for it is examined in Dr. F.C. Eeles' History of St. Decuman's. The earliest written account of a church on the site appears in the record of a gift by Simon Brito of the prebend of St. Decuman's to Wells Cathedral in 1190 A.D.
St Decuman's Church Well Watchet - the Stone of Contemplation
St Decuman's Church Well Watchet
Photo supplied by Dave Sorrell
St Decuman's Church Holy Well - Engraving on the stone
Photo supplied by Dave Sorrell
For more information contact the Vicar, 01984 631228
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