About Us

About the village of Harberton

There are just over 600 people living in our village. Village social life centres around the medieval Church House Inn, the much-used village hall (built 30 years ago through the efforts of a group of enterprising villagers), the playing fields ...and the church. The village has many visitors particularly in the summer months, due to its location which gives easy access to the seaside and Dartmoor. The social life of the village in strong and many of the social events are designed to build our community life whilst fundraising, much of which is for the church.

About the church and its place within the community

The St Andrew’s Church building dates back to the 13th century. It has a beautiful interior, much enhanced in Victorian Times. Its long history (see History section below) has been well researched and celebrated in an exhibition at the back of the building. The church can seat up to 350 people. It is surrounded by a very large graveyard, providing an open space right in the centre of the village. Both the church building and the large churchyard are much treasured by villagers who provide not only the money for their repair, but also their physical effort to keep them in good order.

The church is used every Sunday morning for services, with a small but loyal congregation attending, swelled at festival times, and particularly for the Christmas Carol Service. It hosts 2 or 3 weddings and a similar number of funerals and memorial services each year. The non-Eucharistic services are currently led by a Licensed Local Minister (LLM/Lay Reader) and a LLM in training with further lay member lay participation in services.

Local people, whether attending services regularly or not, very much see St Andrew’s as ‘their church’. It is open every day from morning to early evening and villagers and many from much further afield will come in. We have a 'Friends Group' making regular contributions to meet the church maintenance costs. Also, a fantastic fundraising group ( the HCCF https://harbertonccf.org.uk ) dedicating their time to arranging events in and around the church which garner the enthusiasm and support of the wider community. In recent years these have included: Wedding and Christmas Tree Festivals, Open Garden Events. The PCC has also arranged its own fundraisers for the running costs of the church -  ‘Big Breakfasts’ and ‘Curry Lunches’, Coffee Mornings ...and so on.  Thanks to the efforts of all the fundraisers, we have been able to make substantial improvements to the church fabric in recent years and meet our everyday costs.  

Style of Worship and Benefice Organisation

We use Common Worship, alternating Sunday services between Holy Communion and Morning Praise. We are benefit greatly from being part of the Totnes Mission Community, with it’s larger churches in Totnes and smaller village ones, all like ourselves eager to continue to serve their own communities, surrounding the town. 

More about the history of our church building

St Andrew’s, Harberton is a magnificent building that has been the focus of village pride for several centuries. A brief look at its history adds new perspective to our latest efforts to maintain this treasure in our midst.

There was probably a church of some sort since Saxon times, but the first reference to our church in Harberton is in 1108 - nearly 1000 years ago. Indeed, that’s the first use of the name ‘Harberton’.

It started with a chancel, after which the parish itself was responsible for building the rest of the church, slowly constructing it over the next couple of centuries. Two terrible outbreaks of the Black Death in 1348 and 1360 - resulting in the death of a third and then a fifth of the population, can’t have sped the work…

One droll record is from 1436, when the Bishop of Exeter issued an Indulgence offering 40 days off purgatory for anyone contributing to the repairs or continuing support for the building of the parochial church of ‘Hurberton’!

The English Heritage Grade 1 Listing for St. Andrew’s (Grade I buildings are of exceptional interest - only 2.5%, about 12,500 of all buildings across England are in this top category) suggests it was probably completed by the middle of the 15th century, with the porch and tower following over the next few decades. Its splendid architecture includes a barrel roof engagingly decorated with carved mediaeval bosses, including an amusing Green Man with a twisted nose, and the heads of Richard III with his hat pulled down over his ear, and Anne, his queen.

Most striking, right across the church, is the magnificent rood screen from around 1400-1450. Our screen was substantially restored and repainted in 1871, when the mediaeval panels were repainted on metal sheets, but a few of the original panels did survive, found stored above the screen during re-plastering of the church in 1965, and in a local landowner’s attic where they had been hidden since 1871.

The lofty tower at the west end of the church boasts a peal of six bells cast in 1762, but as early as 1553 the church rang four bells. The sonorous chiming clock was given in 1898 by Sir Robert Harvey of Dundridge, and has only two faces: to the south and west so that the time could not be seen by the rival landowner at Tristford to the north!

St Andrew’s, a place of Christian worship and witness to the events of Harberton and its people down the ages, is filled with outstanding gems that eloquently tell its long story. There’s our oldest tangible link with its early days: the glowing 11th century carved sandstone font; the radiant windows; the poignant memorials to Tito, who died tragically in his 11th year; the rare carved stone pulpit; the imposing ‘Father Willis’ organ; the royal arms of Queen Anne - and many, many other artefacts, memorials and intriguing, beguiling details.