Bratton Fleming is a large village,

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 ...

and former manor near

Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town in North Devon, England, at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool and won great wealth. Later it imported Irish wool, bu ...

, in

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. It lies a few miles west of Exmoor. The parish is surrounded, clockwise from the north, by the parishes of

Challacombe Challacombe is a small village on the edge of the Exmoor National Park, in Devon, England. The village has a small general shop/Post Office and a single pub, the Black Venus. The village is on the B3358 road and is 5 miles west of Simonsbath. ...

, Brayford,

Stoke Rivers Stoke Rivers is a small village five miles north-east of Barnstaple, in Devon, England. The village historically formed part of Shirwell Hundred and for ecclesiastical purposes falls within the Shirwell Deanery. The parish of Stoke Rivers compri ...

Goodleigh Goodleigh is a village, civil parish and former manor in North Devon, England. The village lies about north-east of the historic centre of Barnstaple. Apart from one adjunct at the south, it is generally a linear settlement. The parish chu ...

Shirwell Shirwell is a village, civil parish and former manor in the local government district of North Devon, in the county of Devon, England. It was also formerly the name of a hundred of Devon. The village lies about 3.5 miles north-east of the town ...

Loxhore Loxhore is a small village, civil parish and former manor in the local government district of North Devon in the county of Devon, England. The parish, which lies about five miles north-east of the town of Barnstaple, is surrounded clockwise from ...

, Arlington and

Kentisbury 200px, St Thomas church Kentisbury is a rural civil parish in North Devon, England, bordering the Exmoor National Park, consisting of three small hamlets, Patchole, Kentisbury Ford and Kentisbury, approximately north east of Barnstaple. The p ...

. The population of the parish in 2001 was 942, falling to 928 in 2011. There is an

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to ...

with the same name which at the 2011 census had a population of 2,117.

History

The former

Manor of Bratton Fleming The Manor of Bratton Fleming was a medieval manor estate in Bratton Fleming, Devon, England. Descent of the manor Fleming In the Domesday Book of 1086 the manor of "Brotone" (Bratton) was one of over one hundred west country manors held in ...

was owned by a succession of families from the Norman Conquest to the 19th century. The Flemings had their seat at Chimwell which

Tristram Risdon Tristram Risdon (c. 1580 – 1640) was an English antiquarian and topographer, and the author of ''Survey of the County of Devon''. He was able to devote most of his life to writing this work. After he completed it in about 1632 it circulated ar ...

described as "one of the largest demesnes of this shire". According to

W. G. Hoskins William George Hoskins (22 May 1908 – 11 January 1992) was an English local historian who founded the first university department of English Local History. His great contribution to the study of history was in the field of landscape history ...

, Chimwell is now a farmhouse called Chumhill. Other Domesday manors in the parish were Benton and Haxton. The great jurist

Henry de Bracton Henry of Bracton, also Henry de Bracton, also Henricus Bracton, or Henry Bratton also Henry Bretton (c. 1210 – c. 1268) was an English cleric and jurist. He is famous now for his writings on law, particularly ''De legibus et consuetudinibus ...

(c. 1210 – c. 1268) was either born here or at

Bratton Clovelly Bratton Clovelly is a village, parish and former manor in the west part of Devon, England. It is situated about south-west of Okehampton immediately north of the A30 road. The manor of Bratton Clovelly was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086. T ...

. The village was once served by a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...

, supposedly 'the most beautiful in England', on the

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

Lynton & Barnstaple Railway The Lynton and Barnstaple Railway (L&B) opened as an independent railway in May 1898. It was a single track, narrow gauge railway and was slightly over long running through the rugged and picturesque area bordering Exmoor in North Devon, ...

; the trackbed runs close to the village. The street names Station Road and Station Hill survive.

Church

St Peter ) (Simeon, Simon) , birth_date = , birth_place = Bethsaida, Gaulanitis, Syria, Roman Empire , death_date = Between AD 64–68 , death_place = probably Vatican Hill, Rome, Italia, Roman Empire , parents = John (or Jonah; Jona) , occupation ...

's Church was rebuilt on the site of a much older building, in 1861. Rev. Gascoigne Canham (d.1667), Rector of Arlington, whose mural monument exists in Arlington Church, and a relative by marriage to the Chichester family of Arlington (a cadet branch of the Chichesters of Raleigh and later of Youlston, lords of the manor of Bratton Fleming), purchased in 1665 the

advowson Advowson () or patronage is the right in English law of a patron (avowee) to present to the diocesan bishop (or in some cases the ordinary if not the same person) a nominee for appointment to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living, a ...

of Bratton Fleming, 2 1/2 miles south-east of Arlington, from Sir Francis Godolphin for £300, and on 27 March 1667 he signed a deed granting the advowson in perpetuity to

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of t ...

, of which he was a member. He also gave £10 toward the "Combination Room" of that college.Venn, John, Biographical History of Gonville & Caius College, 1897, pp.280-1, 287 A mural monument exists in St Peter's Church, Bratton Fleming, to Rev. Bartholomew Wortley, the first rector to be appointed by Gonville & Caius College. He was aged about 50 when appointed and remained in office until his death in 1749 aged 97.

References

External links

Bratton Fleming home pageBratton Fleming at GENUKI
{{authority control Villages in Devon

History

Church

See also

References

External links