Posbury is an ancient estate in Devon, now a hamlet, situated about 2 miles south-west of Crediton and 2 miles north of Tedburn St Mary and 1 mile west of the small hamlet of Venny Tedburn.
Posbury is an ancient estate in Devon, now a hamlet, situated about 2 miles south-west of Crediton and 2 miles north of Tedburn St Mary and 1 mile west of the small hamlet of Venny Tedburn.
Posbury Hill Fort is an unexcavated Iron Age Hill fort, located three miles south-west of Crediton, Devon. [1] It consists today of an incomplete earthwork partly enclosing a hilltop 180 metres above sea level. A modern road cuts across the north of the hilltop. Just to the south of the hamlet there are the remains of an early Roman road, that ran from the newly discovered Roman fort, near Colebrooke, in an eastward direction towards Crediton. W. G. Hoskins states that this is a likely site of Posentesburg, a battle site from 661 AD in which Cenwalh, the King of Wessex, moved the native Briton tribes out of middle Devon to the coast. Today the hill fort's defences are best seen from the bridle path, just to the north of the convent.
The manor of Posbury is first recorded as held by the de Posbury family. On the failure of the male line, a daughter and sole heiress Eleanor de Posbury brought the manor to the family of her husband, a member of the Pollard family of Way, St Giles in the Wood, Devon. [2]
On 5 April 1581, John Bremridge did homage and service to George Pollard, then the Lord of the Manor of Posbury-Bradleigh, and duly recovered seizin of his inheritance of Bremridge, in the parish of Sandford. By an Inquisition post mortem dated 1599 it appears that he died "seized of one capital messuage or tenement called Bremridge, with three orchards, two gardens, seventy acres of land, four of meadow and half an acre of wood, within the parish and hundred of Crediton, all held of Richard Pollard and John Hele, serjeant-at-law, as parcel of the Manor of Posbury Bradleigh, by the eighth part of a knight's fee and by the annual rent of seven shillings and five pence." [3]
This branch of the Pollard family appears to be that seated at Langley, Yarnscombe, Devon, in which Richard Pollard (died 1626) was the son and heir of George Pollard. [4] Sir John Heale (d.1608) of Wembury, Serjeant at Law, was Recorder of Exeter 1592-1605 and was MP for Exeter. His monument survives in Wembury Church. [5]
Posbury House was the historic centre of the settlement, long the property of the Tuckfield family, whose early home was here or at adjacent Venny Tedburn or at nearby Tedburn St Mary. John Tuckfield (fl.1550) of Exeter was a wealthy woolen-cloth merchant and served as Mayor of Exeter 1549–50. His son was John Tuckfield (1555-1630) of Teadburn (as the monument in Holy Cross Church, Crediton erected by his son records), who purchased the estate of Little Fulford (later renamed Shobrooke House), which thenceforth he made his seat, [6] in the parishes of Shobrooke and Crediton, situated 4 miles north-east of Posbury. [7] In 1797 the Devon topographer Rev. John Swete visited Little Fulford and recorded in his journal that the "large woollen manufactory" of the Tuckfield family "has ever since subsisted in these parts". [8] Richard Hippisley (1774-1844), a distant cousin who later adopted the surname Tuckfield, inherited the Tuckfield estates and not only rebuilt Shobrooke House in the new Italianate style, but also in 1835 built St Luke's Chapel at Posbury. [9]
Posbury House in 2014 is home to an Anglican Franciscan nunnery known as The Community of the Franciscan Servants of Jesus & Mary founded in Stepney, London, in 1935 by Grace Emily Costin who took the name "Mother Teresa". It moved in 1937 to the Isle of Wight and again in 1942, to escape the danger of enemy bombardment during World War II, to Posbury House, which they renamed The House of St Francis. During the War the community started to host retreats for candidates for ordination as priests in the Diocese of Exeter, which practice was only discontinued shortly before 2014. The house has its own chapel on site. By 2014 the community had dwindled in number, and the practice has ceased of the sisters working in the local community in areas connected with spiritual matters. [10]
St Luke's Chapel was built in 1835 by Richard Hippisley Tuckfield of Shobrooke House in order to supplement the capacity of nearby Holy Cross Church, Crediton, which had become overwhelmed by the number of its parishioners generated by the prosperous and expanding town of Crediton. The governors of Crediton Church took legal advice as to whether it was lawful for them to fund the building of a second church. An Act of Parliament passed during the reign of King William IV (1830-1837) relaxed the rules governing the building of additional churches to cater for populous parishes. The requirements of the Act, which sought to avoid parish churches competing for scarce parishioners and funding, were that the existing parish church should have a specified minimum number of parishioners, that site of the proposed new church should be at least two miles distant from the parish church, that at least three hundred persons were resident within one mile of the new church and that a maintenance trust-fund should be established. Rev. Samuel Rowe, rector of Crediton Church, declared his Sunday services to be attended by between seven and eight hundred, and the conditions were thus met. The new chapel, dedicated to St Luke, was built at Posbury in 1836 on a site owned by Mr Tuckfield, formerly called "Blackadown", alias "Pethams Postbury". R. H. Tuckfield established the required maintenance fund, in the sum of £1,000 plus £5 for every £100 in building costs. The land, chapel building and fund were transferred into the legal ownership of trustees appointed for the purpose, prominent members of the local gentry namely Sir Stafford Northcote, 7th Baronet (1762-1851), of Pynes, Newton St Cyres, Sir Humphrey Davie, 10th Baronet (1775-1846)Bart of Creedy House, Sandford, James Wentworth Buller (1798-1865), of Downes House, MP for Exeter (1830-1835) and for North Devon (1857-1865) and John Sillifant Esq. The chapel was consecrated on 18 October 1836 by Henry Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter, and at the same time the land and building were regranted to the ownership of Mr Tuckfield, with the maintenance fund alone remaining in the ownership of the trustees. Mr Tuckfield became owner of the advowson, and thus patron of the living, which office is still held today by his descendant Sir John Richard Shelley, 11th Baronet (born 1943), of Shobrooke House. He appointed as the first curate Reverend Frederic Shelley (1809–1869), [11] later 8th of the Shelley Baronets, who in 1845 married Charlotte Martha Hippisley (1812-1893), Sir Richard Hippisley's niece, and whose eldest son Sir John Shelley, 9th Baronet (1848–1931) in 1880 inherited Shobrooke Park and all his other estates including Posbury.
At about the same time as Richard Hippisley Tuckfield was building St Luke's Chapel, his wife Charlotte Mordaunt (1777-1848), daughter of Sir John Mordaunt, 7th Baronet, was building a small school in the lane opposite. [12] She had an "ardent zeal for the training of the deaf and dumb and of school masters for the poor" (as commented the Educational pioneer Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 11th Baronet (1809-1898), both of whose wives were Charlotte's nieces). [13] Charlotte had developed an interest in teaching the deaf and dumb after a visit to her friend Grace Fursdon at Fursdon House, where she met her deaf and dumb protégée, who aroused her sympathy and interest. She travelled to Paris to study the teaching methods at the Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris, the institution for the deaf and dumb run by the Venerable Abbe Sicard (d.1822). On her return home she sought out two similarly affected children and taught them herself. She was successful in her methods and was instrumental in establishing a school in Alphington Road, in Exeter, the precursor of the present Royal West of England School for the Deaf. She wrote a series of articles later published in a book entitled "Education for the People". [14] In 1838 Sir Thomas Acland established the Exeter Diocesan Education Committee, the first in Great Britain, which by 1840 had established St Luke's Teachers' Training College in Cathedral Close, Exeter. Thus there was little further need for Posbury School which closed and was for a while used as a Sunday School. In the 1920s, by which time it was serving only as a storage shed, it was demolished and its building stone served to make buttresses for the walls of St Luke's Chapel. [15]
Upton Pyne is a parish and village in Devon, England. The parish lies just north west of Exeter, mainly between the River Exe and River Creedy. The village is located north of Cowley and west of Brampford Speke and Stoke Canon. It has a population of 539.
Sir William Peryam of Little Fulford, near Crediton in Devon, was an English judge who rose to the position of Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer in 1593, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I.
There have been three baronetcies created for members of the Shelley family, one in the Baronetage of England and two in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. The three recipients of the titles represented two different branches of the family with a common ancestor in John Shelley of Michelgrove. The most famous member of the family is the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, although he never held any title. The holders of the third and last creation were later elevated to the peerage as Baron De L'Isle and Dudley and Viscount De L'Isle.
Sandford is a village and civil parish in the Mid Devon district, within Devon, England. Sandford is part of the electoral ward named Sandford and Creedy. The ward population at the 2011 Census was 3,429.
Crediton Parish Church, formally the Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross and the Mother of Him who Hung Thereon, is a prominent building and worshipping community in the Devon town of Crediton. The church is built on the site of what was the "cathedral" of the Bishop of Crediton in the former diocese until 1050 when the see was transferred to Exeter. A college of canons remained at Crediton, administering the buildings and life of the "collegiate" church. The nave and chancel of the current building date from the 15th century. At the English Reformation the church was surrendered to Henry VIII in 1545, and the college dispersed. The church buildings were bought by the Crediton Town Corporation who still administer the fabric today. Now a parish church, the life of the church is administered by the parochial church council (PCC), although many still refer to the church as the Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross.
The Deanery of Cadbury represents the Church of England in mid Devon, within the Archdeaconry of Exeter and the Diocese of Exeter. The current rural dean is Matthew Tregenza.
Sir Arthur Northcote, 2nd Baronet (1628–1688) was a baronet from Devon, England. He lived at Hayne in the parish of Newton St Cyres, Devon, where the mansion house has since been demolished; and also at King's Nympton, Devon, a manor that he purchased from Sir Hugh Pollard, 2nd Baronet, his father's first cousin, and where he was buried.
John Northcote (1570–1632) of Uton and Hayne, Newton St Cyres, near Crediton, Devon, was a member of the Devonshire gentry, lord of the manor of Newton St Cyres, who is chiefly known to history for his artistically acclaimed effigy and monument in Newton St Cyres Church. Little or no documentary evidence concerning his career as a soldier or county administrator has survived, but either he or his identically named son was Sheriff of Devon in 1626.
The Manor of Combe Martin was a medieval manor estate in Combe Martin, Devon, England.
Great Fulford is an historic estate in the parish of Dunsford, Devon. The grade I listed manor house, known as Great Fulford House, is about 9 miles west of Exeter. Its site was said in 1810 to be "probably the most ancient in the county". The present mansion house is Tudor with refurbishment from the late 17th century and further remodelling from about 1800. The prefix "Great" dates from the late 17th century and served to distinguish it from the mansion house known as "Little Fulford" in the parish of Shobrooke, Devon, about 8 miles to the north-east, also owned briefly by Col. Francis Fulford (1666–1700), as a result of his marriage to the heiress of the Tuckfield family. Great Fulford has been the residence of the Fulford family, which took its name from the estate, from the reign of King Richard I (1189–1199) to the present day. There are thus few, if any, families in Devonshire of more ancient recorded origin still resident at their original seat. In 2004 the estate comprised 3,000 acres.
John Tuckfield of the City of Exeter, Devon, was a merchant, Alderman of Exeter, and member of the Company of Merchant Adventurers of Exeter who was Sheriff of Exeter in 1547 and Mayor of Exeter in 1549–1550.
Little Fulford was an historic estate in the parishes of Shobrooke and Crediton, Devon. It briefly share ownership before 1700 with Great Fulford, in Dunsford, about 9 miles (14 km) to the south-west. The Elizabethan mansion house originally called Fulford House was first built by Sir William Peryam (1534-1604), a judge and Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. It acquired the diminutive epithet "Little" in about 1700 to distinguish it from Fulford House, Dunsford and was at some time after 1797 renamed Shobrooke House, to remove all remaining confusion between the two places. Peryam's mansion was demolished in 1815 and a new house erected on a different site away from the River Creedy. This new building was subsequently remodelled in 1850 in an Italianate style. It was destroyed by fire in 1945 and demolished, with only the stable block remaining today. The landscaped park survives, open on the south side to the public by permissive access, and crossed in parts by public rights of way, with ancient large trees and two sets of ornate entrance gates with a long decorative stone multiple-arched bridge over a large ornamental lake. The large pleasure garden survives, usually closed to the public, with walled kitchen garden and stone walls and balustrades of terraces. The park and gardens are Grade II listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. The estate was the home successively of the families of Peryam, Tuckfield, Hippisley and lastly the Shelley baronets, in whose possession it remains today.
Peamore is a historic country estate in the parish of Exminster, Devon, which is near the city of Exeter. In 1810 Peamore House was described as "one of the most pleasant seats in the neighbourhood of Exeter". The house was remodelled in the early 19th century and is now a grade II listed building.
Shobrooke is a village, parish and former manor in Devon, England. The village is situated about 1 1/2 miles north-east of Crediton. It is located close to Shobrooke park. The river Shobrooke Lake flows through the village. It had a population of 537 according to the 2011 census. The name Shobrooke is derived from the old English words of succa and brōc, and translates as goblin brook.
Reverend Sir Frederic Shelley, 8th Baronet (1809–1869), of Shobrooke Park, Crediton, Devon, was a cleric and landowner.
John Peryam, of Exeter, Devon, was elected four times as a Member of Parliament, for Barnstaple 1584, Bossiney 1586, Exeter 1589 and 1593. He served as Mayor of Exeter. He was the younger brother of Sir William Peryam (1534-1604) of Little Fulford, near Crediton in Devon, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer.
Creedy is an historic estate in the parish of Sandford, near Crediton in Devon. It is named from its location on the west side of the River Creedy. It was the seat of the Davie family from about 1600 until the late 20th century. The mansion house on the estate has been called at various times New House, Creedy House, and as presently, Creedy Park. It was first built in about 1600, rebuilt in 1846, burnt down in 1915 and rebuilt 1916–21. It is surrounded by a large park, the boundary of which is enclosed by a stone and brick wall several miles long.
Mount Radford is an historic estate in the parish of St Leonards, adjacent to the east side of the City of Exeter in Devon.
Sir William Davie, 4th Baronet (1662–1707) of Creedy in the parish of Sandford, near Crediton in Devon, inherited the Davie baronetcy and the Davie estates from his elder brother Sir John Davie, 3rd Baronet (1660–1692), MP for Saltash 1679–85 and Sheriff of Devon in 1688, who died unmarried at the age of 32.
Henry Northleigh (1643–1694) of Peamore in the parish of Exminster in Devon, was thrice MP for Okehampton in Devon.