MEM25029 - St Luke's Churchyard, Simonsbath (Monument)

A church, dating to approximately 1856. [1] The parish church of St Luke was constructed after the parish of Exmoor was created in 1856 out of the old Royal Forest. [2,3] Located in the graveyard is a gravestone set up by the Exmoor Society for Anna Maria Burgess who was murdered in 1858 by her father. [3,4] Exmoor parish was created when this church was built in 1856. [4] On 21 October 1856 the church, with accommodation for 209 people and dedicated to St Luke, was consecrated by the Bishop of Bath and Wells, Lord Auckland. The living was a perpetual curacy with ten acres of glebe. [5] The conveyance of the Crown Estate apportioned from the Royal Forest was completed in 15 March 1820 to John Knight. This included 12 acres of land at Simonsbath Farm, which was staked out and reserved to the Crown as provision for a church, churchyard, parsonage house and homestead. At the time the Forest was extraparochial but the area became the Parish of Exmoor in 1856. [6] In a letter dated 27 May 1852, Robert Smith writes to Frederic Winn Knight that "should the Church be erected, the only [underlined twice] field we have (the stony spot) would be taken away from us". [7]