ASHFORD IN WHITE'S DIRECTORY OF 1878 |
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St. John's Church, Ashford © Richard J. Brine |
Ashford, a parish and small village on an aclivity on the north side of the estuary of the Taw, 2½ miles W.N.W of Barnstaple, in Barnstaple Union, county court district, archdeaconry and rural deanery, Braunton petty sessional division and hundred, and Braunton polling district of North Devon. Its parish had 152 inhabitants (68 males, 84 females) in 1871, living in 33 houses on 359 acres of land.
The manor was successively held by the Beaumont, Bassett, Moore and Bampfylde families, and was sold in lots, about 1815, by Sir C. W. Bampfylde. It now belongs to the executors of the late George Langdon Esq., Sir W. R. Drake, Messrs J. M. Fisher Lewis, William and Thomas Badcock and a few others.
The church (St. John) is an ancient structure, consisting of nave, chancel, north aisle and tower, surmounted by a spire and containing two bells. The chancel was rebuilt in 1861-2 by the present rector at a cost of £300; the other portions of the church were rebuilt in 1854. The east window is filled with stained glass in memory of the Rev. John Blackmore M.A, a former curate. The seats are of ancient oak, having finely carved ends, and the church contains a good organ. There are several handsome monuments to the Drake and other families. The register dates from 1700. The living is a rectory, valued in the King's Book at £8 13s 9d and now at £110, in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor and incumbency of the Rev. Charles Whittington Landon T.A.K.C. The glebe is 6 acres and there is an old-fashioned rectory house, from the grounds of which a good view of the Taw Estuary can be obtained. The tithes are commuted at £85 a year. The Baptists have a small chapel here.
A National School was erected in 1859 but the parish forms, with Heanton Punchardon, a united district for school board purposes.
POST through Barnstaple, which is the nearest Money Order office and Railway Station. |
RESIDENTS Badcock, Lewis, farmer, Furscroft Badcock, Thomas, farmer, Upcott Badcock, William, farmer, Topshill Braily, Mr. Edgecombe Cottage Brooks, William, bootmaker Clarke, John, victualler, Ashford Inn Cutcliffe, George, bootmaker Giddy, Richard, tailor Graddon, Mr. James, Woolstones Hammond, Mrs. Mary Ann, Cliff Cottage Hodge, William, farmer Landon, Rev. Charles Whittington, T.A.K.C, Rector, The Rectory Langdon, George, yeoman Reardon, Roger Jackson, postmaster |
© M.E. Brine. This page last updated
15 August, 2009
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