CREDITON Parish Church is built on a massive scale for a parish church and has a traceable history back to 739.

It was the site of the first cathedral in Devon from 909 to 1050 and houses several monuments of national importance.

It has had visits from royalty and Archbishops of Canterbury, housed for a short time Cromwellian troops and their horses in 1645, has a Harrison and Harrison organ of national note, is surrounded by a managed green oasis containing thousands of burials and has in the tower one of the best peals of 12 bells in the country.

It has an unusual form of governance, one of only two parish churches in England, owned by a Corporation of Governors.

On Saturday, September 13 from 10.30am to 3.30pm the parish church is holding a Heritage Open Day in support of the Devon Historic Churches Trust.

The Trust was founded in 1973 to help protect Christian churches and chapels of all denominations in the county of Devon and the Diocese of Exeter.

It offers both advice and grants in support of repairs of maintenance and help with modernisation and reordering as needed.

Crediton Parish Church has benefited from grants in 2003 (bells restoration), 2011 (rewiring and lighting) and 2016 emergency tower repairs discovered when the clock dials were removed for repainting and gilding.

Visitors are encouraged to go along on Saturday, September 13 to ask all those questions they may have and learn about the upkeep and history of the building and its amazing contents and the challenges of maintaining such a large Grade 1 listed building.

There will be photographic displays and archive material to browse, some audio visual and refreshments.

There will be self-guide sheets available taking visitors around a numbered trail in the church covering 25 things little known and not immediately obvious.

For example, how many visitors know about a royal visitor to Crediton in 1911 or that there is an Olympic gold medallist buried in the churchyard?

It also has the only known surviving cricket scorecard from the 1900 Paris Olympics and a copy of the programme produced for the return of General Buller to Crediton from South Africa in 1900.

Visits to the Governors Room on the top floor of the chapter house, note 25 steps, will be available at 11am, 1pm and 2.30pm. For reasons of health and safety, numbers on each tour are limited and pre booking is strongly recommended.

Anyone seeking further information about the Heritage Open Day or wanting to book a tour of the church or the churchyard on a separate occasion should please contact Bill Jerman on 01363 772865.

All tours are free but modest donations for church funds are appreciated.