Shebbear (; ) 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 authority ...

in the Torridge district 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. Devon is ...

, England. It was once itself centre of the Shebbear hundred. In 2001 the parish had a population of 858. An electoral ward exists titled ''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 ...

. The 2011 census population was 1,016.

John Wesley John Wesley (; 2 March 1791) was an English people, English cleric, Christian theology, theologian, and Evangelism, evangelist who was a leader of a Christian revival, revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The soci ...

laid hands on a young

Cornishman The Cornish people or Cornish ( kw, Kernowyon, ang, Cornƿīelisċ) are an ethnic group native to, or associated with Cornwall: and a recognised national minority in the United Kingdom, which can trace its roots to the ancient Britons w ...

called

William O’Bryan William O’Bryan (6 February 1778 – 8 January 1868) was a Methodist preacher and founder of the Bible Christian movement. Life O'Bryan was born William Bryant at Gunwen farm, Luxulyan, Cornwall and was converted to Wesleyan Methodism. In 1815 ...

who later founded the Bible Christian Church in Shebbear: the first Bryanite

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

was built in the village in 1817.

Church

The church of St Michael and All Angels dates back to the 11th century. The south doorway is from about 1180.

Shebbear College

Shebbear College Shebbear College is an independent day and boarding school for girls and boys aged 4 – 18 situated in Shebbear, Devon, England. The school's 85-acre rural campus is situated in the Devon countryside. It was founded by the Bible Christian Soci ...

is a

coeducation Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

al day and boarding

public school Public school may refer to: * State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government * Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England an ...

for children from 3 to 18 years of age. Notable Old Boys include: Sir Pridham Baulkwill, Sir Ivan Stedeford and E. W. Martin.

Turning the Devil's Stone

At 8 pm on

5 November Events Pre-1600 *1138 – Lý Anh Tông is enthroned as emperor of Vietnam at the age of two, beginning a 37-year reign. *1499 – The '' Catholicon'', written in 1464 by Jehan Lagadeuc in Tréguier, is published; this is the first Bret ...

each year, while the rest of the country is burning an

effigy An effigy is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certai ...

of Guy Fawkes, Shebbear has its own unique

celebration Celebration or Celebrations may refer to: Film, television and theatre * ''Celebration'' (musical), by Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones, 1969 * ''Celebration'' (play), by Harold Pinter, 2000 * ''Celebration'' (TV series), a Canadian music TV serie ...

. The one tonne lump of rock known as the Devil's Stone (or Devil's Boulder), which lies in the village square, is turned over by the village bellringers. The stone is a

glacial erratic A glacial erratic is glacially deposited rock differing from the type of rock native to the area in which it rests. Erratics, which take their name from the Latin word ' ("to wander"), are carried by glacial ice, often over distances of hundred ...

- not from a local rock formation. According to local tradition the stone needs to be turned over every year or a disaster will fall on the village - the last year it was not turned on 5 November was during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

when such frivolity was frowned on, but after a few days of bad news someone flipped it over anyway. Supposedly the

Devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...

dropped the stone while fighting with God, he lost the battle. Consequently, the stone fell on top of him, flattening him under it. The folklore reasoning for the turning is that it takes a year for the Devil to dig down and up the other side of the rock, at which point it is flipped again, re-trapping him.

Shebbear Community School

Shebbear Community School is a state school for children from 4 to 11 years of age. It is located in the middle of Shebbear, next to the local park.

Twin towns

Balleroy Balleroy () is a former commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region of north-western France. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune of Balleroy-sur-Drôme. The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Biardais'' or ' ...

, France.

References

External links

* {{authority control Villages in Devon Torridge District