Archdeacon of Totnes


The Archdeacon of Totnes or Totton is the senior ecclesiastical officer in charge of one of the oldest archdeaconries in England. It is an administrative division of the Church of England Diocese of Exeter and under the oversight of the Bishop suffragan of Plymouth.

History

The first recorded archdeacon of Exeter occurs in 1083, around the time when archdeacons were first appointed in Britain. Around that time, the Diocese of Exeter was divided into four archdeaconries: Exeter, Cornwall, Totnes and Barnstaple. This configuration of archdeaconries within the diocese remained for almost 800 years, until the creation of the independent Diocese of Truro from the Cornwall archdeaconry. On 22 March 1918, the archdeaconries were reconfigured and the Archdeaconry of Plymouth created from Totnes archdeaconry. Presently, the diocese operates an informal 'area scheme' such that responsibility for roughly half the diocese is delegated to each suffragan bishop: special oversight is given to the Bishop of Crediton for the Barnstaple and Exeter archdeaconries and to the Bishop of Plymouth for the Plymouth and Totnes archdeaconries.
The archdeacon oversees the deaneries of Moreton, Newton Abbot and Ipplepen, Okehampton, Torbay, Totnes and Woodleigh, in Devon, southwest England.

List of archdeacons

High Medieval