St Giles in the Wood 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 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. Devon is ...

, England. The village lies about 2.5 miles east 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 ...

, and the parish, which had a population of 566 in 2001 compared with 623 in 1901, is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Huntshaw,

Yarnscombe Yarnscombe is a small village and parish in the Torridge area of Devon, England. It is situated approximately from Great Torrington and from Barnstaple. In the year 2001 census the population was recorded at 300. Parish Church The parish ch ...

High Bickington High Bickington is a rural village and civil parish in the Torridge district of Devon, England. The village lies on the B3217 road, around east of Great Torrington, south-west of South Molton, and south of Barnstaple. At the 2011 Census, t ...

, Roborough,

Beaford Beaford is a village and civil parish in the Torridge district of Devon, England. The village is about five miles south-east of Great Torrington, on the A3124 road towards Exeter. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 393, ...

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 ...

and Great Torrington. Most of the Victorian terraced cottages in the village, on the east side of the church, were built by the Rolle Estate.Cherry & Pevsner, p.707. Within the parish are several historic residences:

Stevenstone Stevenstone is a former manor within the parish of St Giles in the Wood, near Great Torrington Great Torrington (often abbreviated to Torrington, though the villages of Little Torrington and Black Torrington are situated in the same r ...

(the historic seat of the Rolle family), Way Barton (home of the Pollard family), Winscott (where

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 ...

, author of the ''Survey of Devonshire'', was born, c. 1580), Dodscott and Woodleigh Barton. There are also a number of hamlets including High Bullen, Healand and Kingscott (where there is a Baptist chapel dating from 1833, and a late 19th-century school), and in the south-west of the parish is the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nort ...

Rosemoor Garden RHS Garden Rosemoor is a public display garden run by the Royal Horticultural Society in north Devon, England. Rosemoor is about south of Great Torrington on the A3124 road to Exeter. It is surrounded by over of woodland with the River Torri ...

Parish church

The large parish church in the village is dedicated to St Giles the Hermit and came into being in 1309 when licence was obtained from the

Bishop of Exeter The Bishop of Exeter is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Exeter in the Province of Canterbury. Since 30 April 2014 the ordinary has been Robert Atwell.

to build a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ea ...

because the church at

was considered too far for the convenience of the local inhabitants.

Mark Rolle Hon. Mark George Kerr Rolle (1835–1907; Mark George Kerr Trefusis), of Stevenstone, St Giles in the Wood, Devon, was High Sheriff of Devon in 1864, a DL of Devon and High Steward of Barnstaple. Due to an inheritance from his uncle by ...

funded its

restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

in 1862–3 and many old monuments were retained; these include the monument and effigy of Thomas Chafe (d. 1648) of Dodscott, three monumental brasses, of Alenora Pollard (d. 1430), Margaret Rolle of

(d. 1592) and a small brass of her husband John Rolle (d.1570). There are also 19th- and 20th-century monuments to the Rolle family. StevenstoneByMorris1880

Historic residences

Stevenstone

The most notable historic residence within the parish is Stevenstone House, now demolished, the seat of the Rolle family since the 16th century, which when held by Hon.

(d.1907) were the largest landowners in Devon with over 55,000 acres.

Way Barton

Way Barton is about 2 miles north-east of the village. W. G. Hoskins described it in 1959 as the origin of the Pollard family, having been acquired by them from the ''de la Way'' family at some time before 1242.

Winscott

The present large farmhouse is built on the site of the mansion house belonging to

, an early historian of Devon who died in 1640. In the 16th century Winscott was the property of the Barry family, according to Risdon a branch of the ancient

de Barry family The de Barry family is a noble family of Cambro-Norman origins which held extensive land holdings in Wales and Ireland. The founder of the family was a Norman Knight, Odo, who assisted in the Norman Conquest of England during the 11th century. ...

that had large landholdings around

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

in Ireland. After passing through the Risdon family, it descended into the family of Northcote, ancestors of

Stafford Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh Stafford Henry Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh (27 October 1818 – 12 January 1887), known as Sir Stafford Northcote, Bt from 1851 to 1885, was a British Conservative politician. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1874 and 18 ...

Dodscott

The hamlet of Dodscott lies about 3/4 mile NE of the parish church and 3/4 NW of Winscott. It was listed 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 manusc ...

of 1086 when it was one of 28 manors held by Gotshelm, who had sub-enfeoffed it to his tenant Walter of Burgundy. It was the

cottage A cottage, during Feudalism in England, England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager (known as a Cotter (farmer), cotter or ''bordar'') of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager ...

of the

cottar Cotter, cottier, cottar, or is the German or Scots term for a peasant farmer (formerly in the Scottish Highlands for example). Cotters occupied cottages and cultivated small land lots. The word ''cotter'' is often employed to translate th ...

Doda before 1066, and paid tax for one virgate of land, with land for 1 1/2 ploughs. In the 16th century Dodscott was the residence of Thomas Chafe (1585-1648), the brother-in-law of his neighbour

of Winscott. Risdon wrote a brief paragraph on the history of Dodscott but did not mention how it had come into the possession of Chafe. The Chafe family had originated at "Chafecombe" (modern Chaffcombe) 2 miles north-east of

Chard Chard or Swiss chard (; ''Beta vulgaris'' subsp. ''vulgaris'', Cicla Group and Flavescens Group) is a green leafy vegetable. In the cultivars of the Flavescens Group, the leaf stalks are large and often prepared separately from the leaf blade; ...

in Somerset. He was the third son of Thomas Chafe (1560-1604), notary public for

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

and twice mayor, by his wife Dorothy Shorte, daughter of John Shorte (1524-1587). His eldest brother was William Chafe (d. 1604). His next eldest brother was John Chafe (d. 1619), a merchant of Exeter who married Anne May of

North Molton North Molton is a village, parish and former manor in North Devon, England. The population of the parish in 2001 was 1,047, decreasing to 721 in the 2011 census. An electoral ward with the same name also exists. The ward population at the ce ...

(sometimes given as "Mayho", thus possibly of the Mayhew family of

Boringdon Hall Boringdon Hall is a 16th-century Grade I listed manor house in the parish of Colebrook, about two miles north of Plympton, Devon. Description The oldest parts of the present house were said by John Britton (1771–1857) to have been built about ...

connected by marriage with the Parkers of North Molton, later Earls of Morley), whose son was Thomas Chafe (1611-1662), MP.

References

Sources

External links

Genuki St Giles in the Wood page
{{authority control Saint Giles In The Wood Torridge District