Saint
The Knight's Penance
He struck down a saint. Then he built a chapel.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Victorian village church on an ancient site
- Legend from
- Medieval tradition
- Tone
- Dark history
One of the knights who killed Becket came here, they say, to build his way to forgiveness.
St Faith's at Dorstone, in the Golden Valley, has an old tradition. Richard de Brito, one of the four knights who murdered Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December 1170, is said to have founded a chapel here dedicated to the Virgin Mary to make amends for his crime. Local tradition adds that he built the Pandy Inn to house the workmen. The present church, built by 1889 on the lines of the old one, is the third on the site in two centuries. During the Victorian rebuilding a tomb of another de Brito was found containing a pewter chalice, which was stolen in 2006.