You’ve probably noticed a series of beautiful stained-glass panels around the town. These tell the story of Crediton’s St Boniface. Beginning at St Lawrence Green and ending at the Roman Catholic Church, you can follow the trail, brush up on St Boniface - and get your daily exercise.
So who was Boniface? Born in Crediton in the year 680, his father was a Saxon nobleman, his mother an educated Celt: and young Boniface was raised as a Christian in a household of learning. After an early education at the Benedictine monastery in Exeter he studied further at Nursling Abbey near Southampton, where later, at the age of 30, he was offered the post of Abbot.
Instead of taking the job he decided to travel. After travelling to Rome and being appointed and tasked by Pope Gregory, Boniface began working in what is now Germany, France and the Netherlands, then huge and largely ungoverned areas of lawless countryside.
Boniface built schools, set up churches, taught open-air lessons, founded monasteries and convents, which were often the only source of learning in those days. Later, he crowned Pepin, the first-ever King of France. Today, over a thousand years later he is still a well-known and revered figure in Germany, France and The Netherlands.
In 754 AD aged almost 80 he set off on his final perilous mission with only a small band of followers. Whilst making camp near Dokkum in northern Friesland on 5th June, they were slaughtered by marauders. Boniface died a martyr’s death.
His body was recovered by his Benedictine brothers and conveyed down the Rhine to Mainz where it was eventually laid to rest in a sacred shrine in Fulda Abbey in Hesse, Germany. Saint Lioba, his kinswoman from Wessex, was later buried close by at his request. Boniface became revered as the Apostle of Germany and is now known as the Patron Saint of Devon and of Crediton.
Each glass panel on the walk shows a key moment from St Boniface’s life. On each sign you will also see a QR code which can be scanned for more information. LINK
Setting up the Heritage Trail
Over one hundred people were involved in developing the Heritage Trail, all of them voluntarily. They included Crediton Town Team’s project steering group led by Rod Brookes Hocking, artist Charlotte Turner, the graphic designers Alison Shakspeare and Karl Triebel, structural engineer Bill Badger, photographer Richard Burston, funding advisor Paul Tucker, numerous Crediton town councillors, as many as eighty church committee members and vicars and priests from the Crediton Roman Catholic Church, Holy Cross Parish Church, the Methodist Church and the Congregational Church, as well as numerous officers and elected members from Mid-Devon District Council on whose land four of the eight toughened glass panels are installed.
Special thanks go to the European Union’s LEADER fund and its UK team based in Exeter. Their special scheme for rural innovation and tourism for rural communities was critical and much appreciated. Many thanks also go to Crediton Town Council and the Crediton Chamber of Commerce, whose support was also invaluable. Thanks to all!
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