28th July 2019
Last Saturday I visited Coldridge in Devon for the fifth time in the last two years. On the face of it this place is rather insignificant. I must admit I'd never heard of the village until I came across something on the internet written by John Ashdown-Hill. He mentioned a church in Devon which has a stained glass window of Edward V. This was news to me and I was curious because Mr Ashdown-Hill didn't say whereabouts in Devon that the church is located. Since reading about it I have now found out that there is an image of this uncrowned King in St Matthew's church in Coldridge. If you visit this church then you will find it in the chapel of Sir John Evans.
I've now become acquainted with John Dike who lives in Coldridge and he gave a presentation last week at St Matthew's church to the Devon & Cornwall branch of the Richard III Society which I attended with my wife. I've recorded two songs about the mystery surrounding the tomb of Sir John Evans and the stained glass window of Edward V. One song written with my wife and the other with John Dike. This mystery may be linked to the mystery surrounding the missing Princes of Edward IV and John Dike has become involved with Philippa Langley's missing Princes project. John is planning to undertake an investigation outside one of the windows in the church to see if he can find any fragments of broken stained glass which may provide some clues in respect of the original glass in the windows in the church. John went to Crediton library very recently and found an interesting description of the Coldridge church written in the early 1900's. This included a comment along the lines of
"why would you find a portrait of Edward V in this remote place in Devon!"
So people have obviously been puzzled about this for quite some time. The reason must surely be linked to the fact that one of the sons from the first marriage of the Queen of Edward IV owned the deer park and manor in Coldridge.