Loddiswell | |
---|---|
St Michaels and All Angels | |
Location within Devon | |
Population | small |
District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Police | Devon and Cornwall |
Fire | Devon and Somerset |
Ambulance | South Western |
Loddiswell is a parish and village in the South Hams district of Devon, England. It lies on the west side of the River Avon or Aune and is three miles NNW from Kingsbridge. [1] There is evidence of occupation going back to Roman times. The villages most famous son and benefactor was Richard Peek who retired here after being one of the Sheriffs of London. The name Loddiswell is a corruption of Saint Loda's well, named after one of the many saints that occurred all over the westcountry, especially in Cornwall.
There is evidence at the northern end of this parish that Blackdown hill was used by the Romans, [2] on the hill Blackdown Rings, a ring-and-bailey hill fort, may be the remains of a wooden fortress of the 12th century, not otherwise documented. [3] The hill itself gives a commanding view of the area.
Loddiswell was mentioned in the Domesday book in 1086 when the manor was valued at 100 shillings. The manor then belonged to Juhel of Totnes, but had belonged to an Anglo Saxon called Heca before the Norman Conquest. Domesday recorded that there was a fishery that gave 30 salmon as geld. [4]
The parish church of St. Michael's and All Angels, is of the 14th century, enlarged in the 15th century; its font is Norman. The source of the village's medieval prosperity was wool. Woolston House, the manor house of Staunton manor, is a 17th-century house built near the foundations of an earlier structure; rebuilt in the 18th century, it passed from the Wise/Wyse family to the Weymouth and Allin families. [5]
A copper mine opened in the parish in 1825.
In 1848, the congregationists built a chapel [2] funded by Richard Peek. This locally born philanthropist who retired to Loddiswell and built Hazlewood House (1830). also funded a local school (The British School), a reading and news room (1838) as well as giving to various other nearby chapels.
In 1850, the village had a population of 1,013 and the church (St Michaels) was then described as ancient. Yellow ochre was collected here for resale complementing the employment at the mine and the mill. [6]
The Great Western Railway's Kingsbridge branch line arrived in 1893 with a stop at Loddiswell station. It was said that Loddiswell was a "brisk walk away" as in fact the station was closer to the less well known and smaller village of Woodleigh. [7] The railway station continued through the steam age but by 1961 it was an unmanned halt and in 1963 it closed for ever. [7] Today the remains of the track is used as a walking route.
Modern Loddiswell is well served for a small village. There is still a post office, Mini Supermarket and village public house, the Loddiswell Inn. The South Devon Chilli Farm can be found just to the north of the village. Near the village is Fosse Copse a 1.88 hectares (4.65 acres) woodland on the west facing slope of the Avon Valley owned and managed by the Woodland Trust. [8]
Axminster is a market town and civil parish on the eastern border of the county of Devon in England. It is 28 miles (45 km) from the county town of Exeter. The town is built on a hill overlooking the River Axe which heads towards the English Channel at Axmouth, and is in the East Devon local government district. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 5,626, increasing to 5,761 at the 2011 census. The town contains two electoral wards the total sum of both wards being a population of 7,110. The market is still held every Thursday.
The River Avon, also known as the River Aune, is a river in the county of Devon in the southwest of England. It rises in the southern half of Dartmoor National Park in an area of bog to the west of Ryder's Hill. Close to where the river leaves Dartmoor a dam was built in 1957 to form the Avon reservoir. After leaving the moor it passes through South Brent and then Avonwick and Aveton Gifford and flows into the sea at Bigbury-on-Sea. Near Loddiswell the valley flows through Fosse Copse a 1.88 hectares woodland owned and managed by the Woodland Trust.
Aveton Gifford is a small rural village in the south of the English county of Devon. It lies at the head of the estuary of the River Avon or Aune, at the point where it is crossed by the A379 road. It receives its name from this river and also from the family of Giffard who held the manor. Walter Giffard came across with William the Conqueror and helped with the Domesday Book.
Hemyock is a village and civil parish in Devon, England. It is about 8 miles north-west of Honiton and 5 miles (8 km) south of the Somerset town of Wellington. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 1,519. Hemyock is part of the electoral ward of Upper Culm. The population of this ward at the above census was 4,039. The River Culm flows through Hemyock. Hemyock was the former home of the St Ivel dairy processing plant, formerly where the butter-spreads 'St Ivel Gold' and 'Utterly-Butterly' were produced before being moved to a factory in the north of England.
The Blackdown Hills are a range of hills along the Somerset-Devon border in south-western England, which were designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in 1991.
Burghfield is a village and large civil parish in West Berkshire, England, with a boundary with Reading. Burghfield can trace its history back to before the Domesday book, and was once home to three manors: Burghfield Regis, Burghfield Abbas and Sheffield. Since the 1980s the population of Burghfield has nearly doubled with the construction of many new housing estates, dependent for its employment on, for instance, Reading, Newbury and Basingstoke and the M4 corridor which bisects the edge of the area.
Brimpton is a mostly rural village and civil parish in West Berkshire, England. The village occupies a few square miles of land between the Kennet and Avon Canal, a long tributary the River Enborne which is used as part of the Hampshire boundary and the winding slopes of an escarpment in the far south-east. Beyond the Enborne which is almost contiguous with the larger settlement of Baughurst which is part of Tadley. This field contains five round barrows from the period of the Heptarchy in Anglo Saxon England. Brimpton is centred 4.5 miles (7.2 km) of the town of Newbury. It is in the county of Berkshire and no railways or dual carriageways bisect the area.
Modbury is a large village, ecclesiastical parish, civil parish and former manor situated in the South Hams district of the county of Devon in England. Today due to its large size it is generally referred to as a "town" although the parish council has not elected to give itself the status of a town as it could do under s.245(6) of the Local Government Act 1972, so it does not have a town council and cannot have a town mayor. It is also known informally as a "market town", as from at least 1199 the lord of the manor has held the right to hold a regular market. The village is situated on the A379 road, which links it to Plymouth and Kingsbridge. The current parish population is approximately 1,500.
Buckland-Tout-Saints is a village and civil parish in the South Hams district of Devon, England. In the 2001 census it had a population of 178, up from a population of only 37 in 1901. The parish is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Woodleigh, East Allington, Frogmore and Sherford, Kingsbridge, Churchstow, and a short boundary with Loddiswell.
Blackdown, or Black Down, summit elevation 279.7 metres (918 ft) AMSL, is the highest point in both the historic county of Sussex and the South Downs National Park. It is also one of the highest points in the south east of England, exceeded by Walbury Hill and Leith Hill. Blackdown is protected as part of the South Downs National Park.
South Brent is a large village on the southern edge of Dartmoor, England, in the valley of the River Avon. The parish includes the small hamlets of Aish, Harbourneford, Lutton, Brent Mill, and many scattered farmhouses. It is five miles (8 km) north-east of Ivybridge and 14 miles (22 km) east-northeast of Plymouth.
Sambourne, formerly spelled Sambourn, is a hamlet and civil parish 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north-west of Coughton, 12 miles (19 km) from Stratford upon Avon and 20 miles (32 km) from Warwick in the county of Warwickshire, England. It is situated on sloping ground rising westwards to about 500 feet near the ancient Ridge Way, which forms the county boundary with Worcestershire. The village itself is centred round a small triangular green at the junction of four roads and contains several timber-framed buildings of 17th century date. By a designation of 22 July 1991 much of the central area became a conservation area.
Rousdon is a village in East Devon off the A3052 road between Colyford and Lyme Regis in Dorset.
Notgrove is a village and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England, approximately 28.5 to the east of Gloucester. It lies in the Cotswolds, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Sopley is a village and civil parish situated in the New Forest National Park of Hampshire, England. It lies on the old main road from Christchurch to Ringwood, on the east bank of the River Avon. The parish extends east as far as Thorny Hill and borders the parishes of Bransgore and Burton to the south and west respectively. It lies down the road from a small hamlet called Ripley. It includes the hamlets of Shirley, Avon and Ripley. The area is mainly rural with less than 300 dwellings.
Stretton-on-Fosse is a village in the Stratford District in Warwickshire, England. It is situated between the towns of Moreton-in-Marsh and Shipston-on-Stour. The village is situated along the ancient Fosse Way road which runs from Exeter in Devon to Lincoln in Lincolnshire. The road bypasses the village to the east and is now the modern-day A439 road. The village is close to the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire border. While the lower ground of the village is heavy clay the upper parts are composed of sand and shingle. During commercial extraction of sand important graves of the Roman-British and Anglo-Saxon periods were uncovered and interesting skeletons and personal belongings were unearthed. These burials were the result of internecine warfare between local tribal factions.
Richard Peek was a tea merchant in London from modest beginnings in Loddiswell in Devon. He rose to be one of the Sheriffs of the City of London. He was a known abolitionist and philanthropist in his home area. Whilst sheriff he sent a missionary into Newgate Prison.
Fosse Copse is a woodland in Devon, England, near the village of Loddiswell. It covers a total area of 1.88 hectares on the west facing slope of the Avon Valley. It is owned and managed by the Woodland Trust. There is no public access.
Churchstow is a small village situated on the A379 road in the South Hams district in south Devon, England. It is situated 1.9 miles (3 km) north-west of Kingsbridge and 16 miles (26 km) south-east of Plymouth. The parish had a population of 465 in 2011, according to the 2011 UK Census.
Weston-sub-Edge is a village in Gloucestershire, England.