Peters Marland is a small 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

local government district The districts of England (also known as local authority districts or local government districts to distinguish from unofficial city districts) are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the st ...

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 ...

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 parish, which lies about four miles south of the town 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 ...

, is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of

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 ...

, Merton,

Petrockstowe Petrockstowe (or Petrockstow) is a small village and civil parish in the district of Torridge in Northern Devon, England. Its population in 2001 was 379, hardly different from the figure of 385 recorded in 1901. The southern boundary of the pa ...

Buckland Filleigh Buckland Filleigh is a village, civil parish and former manor in the Torridge district of North Devon, England, situated about 8 miles south of the town of Great Torrington. According to the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 170. It ...

, Shebbear and

Langtree Langtree is a village and parish in north Devon, England, situated about south-west of Great Torrington and south of Bideford. Its name means "tall tree". Torridge District Council and Devon County Council are responsible for local government ...

. In 2001 its population was 234, down from the 286 residents it had in 1901. In 1850 the parish was recorded as covering 2,200 acres with 351 parishioners. At that time most of the land within the parish belonged to Rev. John Moore-Stevens (died 1865), Archdeacon of Exeter, whose son was living at Winscott House in the parish; much also belonged to G. Oldham of Twigbear. Both Winscott and Twigbear are former manors that have their origins before the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Con ...

, as also are Week and Winswell in the parish. The parish church, in the village, is dedicated to St Peter. It was extensively

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 ...

in the 1860s by the Moore-Stevens family and is, according to W. G. Hoskins, "entirely without interest".

Industry

Ball clay Ball clays are kaolinitic sedimentary clays that commonly consist of 20–80% kaolinite, 10–25% mica, 6–65% quartz. Localized seams in the same deposit have variations in composition, including the quantity of the major minerals, accessory ...

is quarried in the east of the parish, as it has been for many years. There was a brick and tile works here until 1940; many houses in Great Torrington are built of its cream-coloured bricks. The

North Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway The North Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway was a railway built to serve numerous ball clay pits that lay in the space between the London and South Western Railway's Torrington branch, an extension of the North Devon Railway group, an ...

served the works between 1925 and 1982. Today the former railway line forms part of the

Tarka Trail The Tarka Trail is a series of footpaths and cyclepaths (rail trails) around north Devon, England that follow the route taken by the fictional Tarka the Otter in the book of that name. It covers a total of in a figure-of-eight route, centred o ...

series of footpaths and cycle tracks.

References

{{authority control Villages in Devon Torridge District