What’s in a name?
Mel Stride ponders Bovey Tracey
 It was Henry II in 1170 who uttered the immortal words ‘who will rid me of this turbulent priest’. He was at a pow-wow in Normandy at the time and he was referring to one Thomas Becket who Henry himself had appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. They had fallen out over the then vexed matter of the respective authority of ecclesiastical versus crown courts. Put simply; in those days, if you were well placed in the religious hierarchy you could get an easy ride from a church court rather than face the often more exacting justice of the crown. This special treatment had led to a Canon in the 1160s being controversially cleared of murder and the king (and many of his subjects) wanted the church brought into line. Becket would have none of it.
Henry later claimed that, despite his outburst in Normandy, he had meant no ill towards the hapless Tom. But his words caused four of his knights to hotfoot for England and to exact the brutal murder of Becket (by slicing off the top of his head). What made the murder especially heinous was that Becket was cut down within the sanctuary of no less a place than Canterbury Cathedral whilst, for good measure, exalting God by the altar. Henry’s penance was to have himself flogged through the streets by the local monks followed by nights sleeping naked on the cold stones where Becket’s blood was spilled. So what has all this got to do with the price of strawberries I hear you ask? Well, one of the murderous quartet was William de Tracey, a Norman knight who had settled in our part of Devon. De Tracey’s penance was milder than Henry’s. Local tradition has it that his family atoned for his deadly deed by rebuilding the church of St Peter, St Paul and St Thomas which still stands in Bovey today (though now partly 14th and mostly15th century).
The word Bovey refers to the river which was probably named after a Norman family originating from a part of Normandy then known as Bouville.