Take a look just ahead-right in the heart of the shopping centre, surrounded by bricks and busy shoppers, you’ll spot a tiny, ancient building made of rough, reddish-brown stones. It looks almost sunken below street level, huddled against the modern shopfronts, with a sloping stone roof and small arched windows. It’s easy to miss, like a secret from another era slipped quietly into the bustle. That, believe it or not, is St Pancras Church. If churches could feel out of place, this one might be checking Google Maps!
Now, imagine yourself back in the 1200s-no phones, no shopping bags, just the echoes of footsteps on ancient stone and the smell of candles drifting through the air. St Pancras feels like a survivor from a lost world. The font inside, where people have been baptised for nearly a thousand years, is even older than the church itself. And some folks say the site is the oldest place of Christian worship in all of Exeter.
Nobody really knows when St Pancras first appeared, but its name hints at an Anglo-Saxon beginning. There used to be a Saxon-style arch, replaced long ago-no fancy carvings now, just plain, worn stone holding centuries of secrets. Through the years, this little church has faced ups and downs: it was abandoned and reopened, remade and rescued, even almost closed forever by the Bishop. But St Pancras proved to be stubborn, sticking around while shops and cafés popped up all around.
Here’s a strange picture for you: in the 1930s, a house was built right up against the church, squashing a window out of sight! It wasn’t until the shopping centre was built that daylight finally returned. If you peek in the east window, the stained glass might catch your eye-it shows St Pancras of Rome, the Crucifixion and St Boniface, bright colours glowing on a sunny day. Oh, and one of the church’s prized possessions, a Jacobean pulpit, arrived when another church was demolished. Talk about hand-me-downs!
It’s not just a building-it’s a scrappy survivor, ducking and weaving through history while the city grows up around it
