'Please note many of these pages about the church are quite slow to download on older machines. They are to be modified soon': Neil

This is based on the blue booklet available in St Budeaux Parish Church

St Budoc

Early in the 5th century after the Romans had left Britain the country was quickly overrun by invading armies.

 Devon and Cornwall were a refuge in the storm of changes that were taking place elsewhere in Britain and Europe. Budoc was the grandson of the King of Brest in Brittany( across the Channel.) As a child he was exiled to Cornwall with his mother and he later became a monk.

He died at the age of 83  in the year A.D. 500.For many years he was the Bishop of Dol  in Normandy. At about the age of 63 he sent a group of missionary monks across the Channel from Brittany, in a open boat to settle here by Ernesettle Creek, a branch of the River Tamar.

There is a stream, deep in the woods at Ernesettle where it is said that  Budoc would baptise children and heal the sick. A small chapel was built just before the Invasion of William the Conqueror in 1066. It survived plagues famines and it was thought eventually to build a new church further away from the river. This church sits high on the hill with  commanding views of sea and river.

Sir Francis Drake

The present church was completed in 1563 just five years after the twenty-five-year old daughter of Henry V111 and Anne Boleyn had become Queen Elizabeth 1. Shortly after this in 1569 Francis Drake married Mary Newman here. Drake was a pioneer, a great sea captain of the English Fleet that defeated the Spanish Armada  in 1588.  King Philip of Spain hated 'El Draco' because of his independent ways. Many would say he was a pirate, but this suited the Queen Elizabeth since he provided them with plundered wealth.

Church Under Fire

The Civil War saw the church as a battleground. In 1664 the church was used as a garrison for 500 Royalist troops. 600 musketeers from the Plymouth attacked and captured the church. The same happened six months later when after a two hour battle the Roundheads captured the church from the Royalists. The church was completely wrecked by canon and had to be restored.

next page (these next pages are taken from the booklet)