Membury | |
---|---|
Membury Church | |
Location within Devon | |
Population | 501 |
OS grid reference | ST279030 |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Axminster |
Postcode district | EX13 |
Dialling code | 01404 |
Police | Devon and Cornwall |
Fire | Devon and Somerset |
Ambulance | South Western |
UK Parliament | |
Membury is a village three miles north west of Axminster in East Devon district. The population at the 2011 Census was 501. [1]
The village has a 13th-century church, dedicated to St John the Baptist, with a tall slim tower. [2] In the aisle there is a monument to Sir Shilston Calmady, who was killed in a skirmish near the village in February 1646, and was buried in the chancel. The founding editor of the medical journal, The Lancet, Thomas Wakley, was born at Membury in 1795.
The village is within the Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and lies just to the north east of Beckford Bridge over the River Yarty, which is the oldest packhorse bridge in East Devon. Near to the village there is former Quaker Meeting House that is now a hotel. [2]
The parish of Membury contains several historic estates including:
Bowden is a historic estate in the parish of Yealmpton in Devon, England. From the 15th century until 1748 the manor house was for eight generations the seat of a junior branch of the Copleston family of Copplestone. The manor house was largely rebuilt in the 19th century and, together with some of its outbuildings, now serves as a farmhouse.
Elize Hele (1560–1635) of Fardel in the parish of Cornwood, Devon and of Parke in the parish of Bovey Tracey, Devon, was an English lawyer and philanthropist. In 1632 he transferred his lands into a trust intended for "pious uses", from which charitable action and in order to distinguish him from his many prominent relations, he became known to posterity as "Pious Uses Hele", which his biographer Prince looked upon "as a more honourable appellation than the greatest empty title". The trustees included his wife, together with John Hele and a number of friends. The trust was used to create a number of schools in Devon including Plympton Grammar School.
Roborough is a village and civil parish 5.5 mi (8.9 km) from Great Torrington, in Devon, England. Situated topographically on the plateau between the Torridge and Taw Rivers, the parish covers 1,258 ha and contains a population of some 258 parishioners. It is surrounded by a pastoral landscape of rectangular fields, high hedges and scattered farmsteads.
The landed gentry and nobility of Devonshire, like the rest of the English and European gentry, bore heraldic arms from the start of the age of heraldry circa 1200–1215. The fashion for the display of heraldry ceased about the end of the Victorian era (1901) by which time most of the ancient arms-bearing families of Devonshire had died out, moved away or parted with their landed estates.
Sir John Hele of Wembury in Devon, serjeant-at-law, was a Member of Parliament for Exeter and was Recorder of Exeter (1592–1605). He was one of Prince's Worthies of Devon (1701). He built at Wembury one of the grandest manor houses ever seen in Devon, called by his near contemporary Risdon : "A magnificent house, equalling, if not exceeding, all other in these western parts, for uniform building; a sightly seat for shew; for receipt spacious; for cost sumptuous; for sight salubrious". It was already a ruin by about 1700, and was finally demolished in 1803. He founded a boys' hospital in Plymouth. His monument and effigy survives in Wembury Church.
Newnham Park is an historic estate in the civil parish of Sparkwell, Devon, UK. It was known as Loughtor until about 1700 when the ancient Strode family, long seated at Newnham, about 1 mile south-east of the manor house of Loughtor, abandoned Newnham and moved their residence to Loughtor where they built a new mansion house which they renamed "Newnham Park". In 2014 the mansion house with an estate of about 1,550 acres is still owned by a descendant of the Courtenay and Strode families which held the estate from the 15th century, and which were well established in the county of Devon long before that time. In 2014 part of the estate is operated as a commercial clay-pigeon shooting ground.
Soldon in the parish of Holsworthy Hamlets, Devon, England, is a historic estate, a seat of the Prideaux family. The manor house is a grade II listed building dating from the mid-16th century with later alterations. It was sold in 2014 as an eight bedroomed house with an acre and a half of grounds for an asking price of £750,000.
Thuborough in the parish of Sutcombe, Devon, England, is an historic estate, formerly a seat of a branch of the Prideaux family, also seated at Orcharton, Modbury; Adeston, Holbeton; Soldon, Holsworthy; Netherton, Farway; Ashburton; Nutwell, Woodbury; Ford Abbey, Thorncombe, all in Devon and at Prideaux Place, Padstow and Prideaux Castle, Luxulyan, in Cornwall. The present mansion house, comprising "Thuborough House" and "Thuborough Barton", the north-east block, is a grade II listed building.
Yarty is an historic estate in the parish of Membury in Devon, and was from the 14th century until 1726 for many centuries the principal seat of the Fry family. It takes its name from the River Yarty which flows near or through the estate. During the reigns of King Richard II (1377-1399) or King Henry IV (1399-1413) William Fry inherited the estate by marriage to the sister and heiress of Simon de Yarty, who died without progeny. The mansion house was "newly builded and augmented" by Nicholas Fry (d.1632), Sheriff of Devon in 1626, whose mural monument survives in the Yarty Chapel in Membury Church.
Lyneham in the parish of Yealmpton in Devon, is an historic estate. The surviving grand mansion house known as Lyneham House is a grade I listed building. It was built c.1699-1703 by Sir Courtenay Croker, MP for Plympton Morice in 1699. A drawing of Lyneham House dated 1716 by Edmund Prideaux (1693–1745) of Prideaux Place, Padstow, Cornwall, survives at Prideaux Place. It shows formal gardens in front with flanking pavilions and an orangery.
Richard Crocker of Devon, England, was a Member of Parliament for Tavistock in Devon in 1335. His descendants were the prominent Crocker family of Crocker's Hele in the parish of Meeth, Devon, later seated at Lyneham in the parish of Yealmpton, Devon until 1740.
William Crocker, living during the reign of King Edward III (1327-1377), of Crocker's Hele in the parish of Meeth, Devon, was a Member of Parliament. His descendants were the prominent Crocker family seated at Lyneham in the parish of Yealmpton, Devon until 1740. William Crocker is the earliest member of the family recorded in the Heraldic Visitations of Devon, although one of his ancestors is known to have been Richard Crocker (fl.1335) of Devon, England, a Member of Parliament for Tavistock in Devon in 1335.
Mount Wise is a historic estate situated within the historic parish and manor of Devonport and situated about one mile west of the historic centre of the city of Plymouth, Devon. It occupies "a striking waterfront location" with views across Plymouth Sound to Mount Edgcumbe and the English Channel. Until 2004 it was a headquarters for senior Admiralty staff and was inaccessible to the public.
Milton Abbot is a village, parish, and former manor in Devon, 6 miles (9.7 km) north-west of Tavistock, Devon, and 6 miles (9.7 km) south-east of Launceston, Cornwall.
Thorne in the parish of Ottery St Mary in Devon is an historic estate situated on the west side of the River Otter opposite the town of Ottery St Mary. The site is today occupied by Thorne Farm situated to the immediate north of the town's school and hospital and to the immediate south of the surviving early 17th century grand mansion house of Cadhay.
Kenedon is an historic manor situated in the parish of Sherford in Devon.
Indio in the parish of Bovey Tracey in Devon, is an historic estate. The present large mansion house, known as Indio House is a grade II listed building rebuilt in 1850, situated about 1/2 mile south of Bovey Tracey Church, on the opposite side of the River Bovey. According to the Devon historian Pole (d.1635) it was originally a priory, however research from 1840 onwards has suggested it was more likely merely a grange farm, a possession of St John’s Hospital, Bridgwater, Somerset, from 1216.
Croker's Hele is an historic estate in the parish of Meeth in Devon, England.
Bagtor is a historic estate in the parish of Ilsington in Devon, England. It was the birthplace of John Ford the playwright and poet. The Elizabethan mansion of the Ford family survives today at Bagtor as the service wing of a later house appended in about 1700.
John Woolcombe (1680–1713) of Pitton in the parish of Yealmpton in Devon, was a Member of Parliament for Plymouth in Devon 1702–5, and served as Sheriff of Devon in 1711–12.