History of Huccaby

 St Raphael's today is a church in its own right, but it was  originally built in 1869 by the then Rector of Lydford, the Revd. Morris  Fuller, as a mission chapel.  He wanted to bring the gospel to those of his flock who lived too far from the parish church at  Lydford, which was the largest parish in Dartmoor and one of the  largest in the country.  He also built the church of St. Gabriel at Postbridge for the same reason. According to William Crossing, the great Dartmoor writer, it was  built on the site of some very old ruined cottages that were thatched  with rye straw.

St Raphael's was also designed to act both as a place of worship on  Sundays and as a schoolhouse during the week.  The scholars's desks  remain in place today and are used as pews.

A memorial on the south wall is dedicated to the memory of Olive  Louise Munday, who died in 1960 and was a member of the Burnard family  who lived at Huccaby House.  She was the eldest daughter of Robert Burnard, the Dartmoor enthusiast and writer, and also  mother of the late Lady Sylvia Sayer, the former patron of the Dartmoor  Preservation Association.

To the left of the altar is a small brass plaque, given by the  parishoners in memory of Heathcote Smith, the first actual vicar of  Huccaby, 1913 - 1914. The 'Good Shepherd' window behind the altar was donated by the Adams family of Huccaby, in memory of Edward Arthur  Adams, who died in 1888 aged 11 years.

The picture of St. Raphael that hangs in the church is a photograph  of a famous wood carving by the 16th century sculptor Viet Stoss  entitled, 'The Archangel Raphael with the child Tobias'.  He carved it for the church of St. Jakob in Nuremburg in 1516.  The  original carving is in the Gernanisches Museum there.

In 2012, St Raphael's became a daughter chuch of St. Mary the Virgin, Holne.