St George and All Saints, Beaford - geograph

Beaford 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

Torridge Torridge may refer to: * Torridge District, a local government district in the county of Devon, England * River Torridge, is a river in Devon in England * Torridge Lass Suffix beginning with F ''Empire Fabian'' ''Empire Fabian'' was an E ...

district 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 ...

, England. The village is about five miles south-east of

Great Torrington Great Torrington (often abbreviated to Torrington, though the villages of Little Torrington and Black Torrington are situated in the same region) is a market town in Devon, England. Parts of it are sited on high ground with steep drops down to ...

, on the A3124 road towards Exeter. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 393, compared to 428 in 1901. The western boundary of the parish is formed by the

River Torridge The River Torridge is a river in Devon in England; it rises near Meddon. The river describes a long loop through Devon farming country where its tributaries the Lew and Okement join before meeting the Taw at Appledore and flowing into the Bristo ...

and it is surrounded, clockwise from the north, by the parishes of St Giles in the Wood, Roborough, Ashreigney, Dolton, Merton and

Little Torrington Little Torrington is a village and a civil parish near Great Torrington, in the Torridge district, north Devon, England. In 2001 the population of the civil parish of Little Torrington was 420 and in 2011 it was 376, according to census data. L ...

. The parish church, which is in the village, is dedicated to All Saints, though before the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

it was dedicated to St George. It has a 15th-century doorway, arches and windows, as well as a

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

font, but according to W. G. Hoskins (writing in 1954) it is otherwise dull, having been heavily

restored ''Restored'' is the fourth studio album by American contemporary Christian music musician Jeremy Camp. It was released on November 16, 2004 by BEC Recordings. Track listing Standard release Enhanced edition Deluxe gold edition Standard ...

. Its tower was rebuilt with a small spire in 1910. Greenwarren House in the village is the former home of Beaford Arts, the country's longest established rural arts centre. It is now a private family house. Beaford House was host to some of the Great Train Robbers, who are understood to have buried more than £200,000 of the stolen money in nearby woods. Beaford has a cricket team which competes in division 2 of the North Devon League.

Historic estates

Within the parish, the estates of Upcott, Warham and Woodleigh (otherwise known as Woolleigh or Wooleigh) were once important. Woolleigh was the seat of the Mallet family until the death of Robert Mallet. His widow was Elizabeth Rolle (a daughter of the wealthy

George Rolle George Rolle (c. 1486 – 20 November 1552) of Stevenstone in the parish of St Giles in the Wood near Great Torrington in Devon, was the founder of the wealthy, influential and widespread Rolle family of Devon, which according to the Return ...

(died 1552) of

Stevenstone Stevenstone is a former manor within the parish of St Giles in the Wood, near Great Torrington, North Devon. It was the chief seat of the Rolle family, one of the most influential and wealthy of Devon families, from c. 1524 until 1907. The ...

near

) who remarried to Sir John Acland (died 1620) of Columb John. During Elizabeth's lifetime the couple resided at Woolleigh. Sir John Acland's nephew Sir Arthur Acland (died 1610) married Eleanor Mallet, the daughter and heir of Robert Mallet, and thus Wooleigh passed into the Acland family, later of

Killerton Killerton is an 18th-century house in Broadclyst, Exeter, Devon, England, which, with its hillside garden and estate, has been owned by the National Trust since 1944 and is open to the public. The National Trust displays the house as a comfortab ...

. The son and heir of Sir Hugh Acland, 5th Baronet (died 1713) was John Acland (died 1703) who lived at Wooleigh whilst his father lived at Killerton. The present farmhouse incorporates part of the mediaeval manor house, a

garderobe Garderobe is a historic term for a room in a medieval castle. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' gives as its first meaning a store-room for valuables, but also acknowledges "by extension, a private room, a bed-chamber; also a privy". The word der ...

with its original door

Pevsner, Nikolaus Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

& Cherry, Bridget, The Buildings of England: Devon, London, 2004, p. 161 and retains remains of a 15th-century family chapel.

References

Sources

*Vivian, Lt. Col. J. L., (Ed.) ''The Visitations of the County of Devon, Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620.'' Exeter, 1895.

External links

Beaford Parish Council
{{authority control Villages in Devon Torridge District