Abbotskerswell is a village and
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
in the English county of
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
. The village is in the north part of the parish and is located two miles (3 km) south of the town of
Newton Abbot
Newton Abbot is a market town and civil parish on the River Teign in the Teignbridge District of Devon, England. Its 2011 population of 24,029 was estimated to reach 26,655 in 2019. It grew rapidly in the Victorian era as the home of the So ...
, from the seaside resort of
Torquay
Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paig ...
and from the city of
Plymouth. The
A381 road A381 may refer to:
* The A381 road in Devon, England
* The Autovía A-381, a motorway in Andalucia, Spain
* The RMAS ''Cricklade'' (A381), a fleet tender to the United Kingdom's Royal Navy
{{Letter-NumberCombDisambig ...
between Newton Abbot and
Totnes
Totnes ( or ) is a market town and civil parish at the head of the estuary of the River Dart in Devon, England, within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is about west of Paignton, about west-southwest of Torquay and abo ...
runs down the western side of the parish and the main railway line between these two towns forms part of its eastern boundary.
History
The settlement that is now Abbotskerswell was called ''Cærswylle'' in 956, ''Carsvelle'' in 1086 and ''Kareswill'' in 1242, meaning 'cress spring' from the Old English ''cærse'' + ''wylle''. The name 'Abbotskerswell' itself is derived from 'Kerswell belonging to the abbot'
f Hortonand was recorded as ''Karswill Abbatts'' in 1285, ''Abbotescharswelle'' in 1314 and ''Abbots Keswell'' in 1675.
In the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
Abbotskerswell was listed as ''Carsuella'' in the ancient
hundred
100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101.
In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...
of Kerswell, and was held by the abbot of
Horton Abbey,
Dorset
Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...
. The name ''kerswell'' means ''cress spring''. In 1086 it had a population of less than one hundred. The parish later became part of
Haytor Hundred when it was derived from Kerswell Hundred. By 1901 the population had risen to 451 and to 1,515 by 2001.
The village church, dedicated to St Mary, was affected by the
Dissolution of the Monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII. Old treasures, particularly a large badly damaged medieval statue assumed to be of the
Virgin and Child
In art, a Madonna () is a representation of Mary, either alone or with her child Jesus. These images are central icons for both the Catholic and Orthodox churches. The word is (archaic). The Madonna and Child type is very prevalent ...
,
have been found within the church, and work has been undertaken to restore them. The north aisle is of the Perpendicular period and the western tower has diagonal buttresses and a stair turret in the centre of one side.
Abbotskerswell developed around the growing of apples and oranges for
cider making. Henley's Devonshire Cider was made by a company based in nearby Newton Abbot from apples grown in the extensive orchards around the village, and their
presses were here too.
In 1850, according to White's Devonshire Directory:
ABBOTSKERSWELL, or Abbot's Carswell, is a pleasant village, two miles S. of Newton Abbot, and has in its parish 433 souls and 1600 acres of land, including several scattered houses and the hamlet of Aller, where there is a paper mill, on a rivulet 1 ½ mile from the church. The soil is all freehold, and belongs to Sir W.P. Carew, Bart., the Hon. Mrs. Hare, W. Hole, Esq., Wm. and John Creed, and a few smaller owners. The Church (St. Mary,) is an ancient fabric in the perpendicular style, with a tower and three bells. It is about to be thoroughly repaired and beautified. The old pews are to give way to open benches, and the finely carved oak screen is to be restored and opened. . . . A cottage has been converted into a Baptist Chapel; and in the parish is a Quaker's Burial Ground, which was reserved for that purpose by a Mr. Tucket, when he sold Court Barton estate. Here is a small National School.
Today
The village has several
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
s, a small shop with post office facilities, (with a hair salon (residents only) on the upper floor), a primary school and one
pub
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
. The Court Farm Inn was previously a farm, and was converted to a pub in the 20th century when the old Tradesmans Arms closed. The other pub was the older Butchers Arms, which was originally a
smithy, it is now closed. The village post office was closed by
Royal Mail in 2008, it is now a tearoom. There is a park with sports facilities and an all-weather pitch. The village has a local bus (Country Bus Devon).
![The Two Mile Oak, near Abbotskerswell - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/The_Two_Mile_Oak%2C_near_Abbotskerswell_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1236710.jpg)
Also in the parish a minor road crosses the A381 road at
Two Mile Oak Cross where there is a public house and a few houses.
The village hosts the annual "Abbfest" Beer and
Food festival
A food festival is a festival, that uses food, often produce, as its central theme. These festivals have always been a means of uniting communities through celebrations of harvests and giving thanks for a plentiful growing season.
History
Food ...
which celebrates Devon food and drink.
As of 2010, the village has two teams in the
South Devon Football League: the main team is in the Premier Division, and the Reserves in Division Four. Their ground is at Abbots Park. Abbotskerswell Cricket Club has three adult teams, the first team playing at A division in the Devon Cricket League, the second team playing in the E division (West) and the newly reformed (2022) third team playing home games at Stover School in the H Division (West). There is a Sunday/Midweek friendly side and two youth teams and the Women's softball cricket team are (2022) Devon Super-8's and Devon County Women's Softball League Champions. Full details can be found a
www.abbotskerswellcc.com- The ground (known as 'The Oak') is situated on the main A381 Totnes Road just outside the village near the Two Mile Oak public house..
For over a hundred years, 1861 to 1983,
Abbotskerswell Priory, situated just north of the parish boundary, was home to an Order of Augustinian nuns. When the nuns left in the 1980s, the buildings were converted into apartments and cottages for the elderly.
Landscape
Abbotskerswell's landscape is mainly hilly. The village lies in a valley and to the north there are fields and to the South there is a forest. Through the village run two streams which meet at the village park. After high rainfall, it sometimes overflows. Some of the fields are home to
Cows
Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...
, Sheep and
Horses.
Transport
The A381 road provides the most direct route to Newton Abbot. Another nearby route is the
A380 road A38 or A-38 may refer to:
* A38 (dairy product), a fermented dairy product sold in Denmark
* A38 (ship), a party boat on the Danube in Budapest, Hungary
* A38 motorway (Netherlands)
* A38 road (England)
* A38 (Sydney), an arterial route in Sydne ...
to
Exeter which also connects to the A3022 to Torbay and A385 to Totnes.
Nearby settlements
These are nearby settlements taken clockwise from
Newton Abbot
Newton Abbot is a market town and civil parish on the River Teign in the Teignbridge District of Devon, England. Its 2011 population of 24,029 was estimated to reach 26,655 in 2019. It grew rapidly in the Victorian era as the home of the So ...
:
*Decoy
*
Kingskerswell
Kingskerswell (formerly Kings Carswell, or Kings Kerswell) is a village and civil parish within Teignbridge local government district in the south of Devon, England. The village grew up where an ancient track took the narrowest point across a m ...
*
Stoneycombe
*
Whiddon
*
Two Mile Oak
*
Ogwell
*
Wolborough
Twin cities/towns
* –
Ardmore, County Waterford
Ardmore () is a seaside resort and fishing village in County Waterford, Ireland, not far from Youghal on the south coast of Ireland. It has a permanent population of around 430, that increases in the tourist season. It is believed to be the ol ...
, Ireland
* –
Le Pré-d'Auge and
Les Monceaux, France
Notable people
*
John 'Babbacombe' Lee, known as "The Man They Couldn't Hang" was born in the village in 1864.
*
Arthur Judd,
first-class cricket
First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...
er, died here in 1988.
*
Jack Davey
John Andrew Davey (8 February 190714 October 1959), known as Jack Davey, was a New Zealand-born singer and pioneering star of Australian radio as a performer, producer, writer and host from the early 1930s into the late 1950s. Later in his caree ...
, ran the Court Farm public house in the village.
References
External links
Official Abbotskerswell Village SiteTeignbridge District Conservation Area Character Appraisal for AbbotskerswellRetrieved 7 February 2007
*
*Abbpast village history group, www.abbpast.co.uk
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Villages in Devon