​THE WARKLEIGH TABERNACLE

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The tabernacle was discovered in the parish chest by the Revd.Sabine  Baring-Gould in 1888.
Thought to have been designed to house pyx  or ciborium ( containers in which the consecrated bread of the Euchariast is kept ) and used to carry the Holy Sacrament to the sick when unable to attend Holy Communion at church.
Made and decorated in the third quarter of the 15thC., and reconstructed in its present form, to serve as a temporary tabernacle upon the altar, at the time of the accession to the throne of Queen Mary. 
Also possibly used as an Easter Sepulchre.
As far as is known it is unique.
Its rough hinges and lock are of the same date as its conversion into a tabernacle.
HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM THE CHURCH FOR SAFEKEEPING.

N.B.
The Revd,Sabine Baring-Gould (1834 - 1924) is perhaps most well known as the writer of the hymn 'Onward Christian Soldiers'. In 1888 he was parson of the parish of Lewtrenchard in West Devon, and at this time he had started to travel widely throughout Devon and Cornwall collecting folk songs that were published as 'Songs and Ballads of the West'.