Whitstone ( Cornish: ''Mengwynn'') 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 east

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, England, United Kingdom. It is roughly halfway between the towns of Bude and Launceston. The population at the 2011 census was 590.

History

The earliest mention of the village is 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 Whitstone was called 'Witestan', and was held by Ralph from the

Count of Mortain The County of Mortain was a medieval county in France centered on the town of Mortain. A choice landholding, usually either kept within the family of the duke of Normandy (or the king of France) or granted to a noble in return for service and favo ...

. There was 1 furlong of land and half a plough, 1 serf, 12 acres of woodland, 8 cattle, 8 pigs, 40 sheep and 40 goats. The value of the manor was 15 shillings though it had formerly been worth £1 sterling. In the 19th century, the parish was called Whitstone. There were around 500 villagers, and a post office, and the entire parish comprised around . The Bude Canal passed through it. Froxton Farmhouse (19th century) is a Grade II* listed building. Froxton was also a manor recorded in the Domesday Book when it was held by Thurstan from Judhael of Totnes. There were 3 furlongs of land and land for 3 ploughs. There was half a plough, 4 serfs, 2 smallholders, 50 acres of woodland, 40 acres of underwood, 8 cattle and 12 pigs. The value of the manor was 11 shillings though it had formerly been worth 15 shillings.

Geography

Whitstone is situated on the B3254 road, halfway between Bude (a major tourist destination) and Launceston (a former capital of Cornwall). Whitstone is around three miles (5 km) from the coast, at Widemouth and surrounded by rolling hills and fields. From the higher points of the village, you can see as far as Dartmoor (to the east) and

Bodmin Moor Bodmin Moor ( kw, Goon Brenn) is a granite moorland in north-eastern Cornwall, England. It is in size, and dates from the Carboniferous period of geological history. It includes Brown Willy, the highest point in Cornwall, and Rough Tor, a s ...

(to the south). Down a minor road, from the B3254, is the entrance to Whitstone Woods, which reaches over to

Week St Mary Week St Mary ( kw, Gwig Sen Maria) is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in northeast Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated south of Bude close to the River Tamar and the border between Cornwall and Devon in the Hun ...

, and includes a river that creates the border to Whitstone parish and is a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

for the larger river that runs through Bude, the River Neet. In the village, Launceston and Bude are both 9 miles away. The Parish Plan 2010 states that Whitstone has 582 inhabitants in 207 households. The proportion of 18- to 30-year-olds is well below the national average and the opposite is true of those of pension age. The parish of Whitstone is bounded to the east by the river Tamar and the Devon county border, to the north by Bridgerule, northwest Marhamchurch, southwest Week St Mary and southeast Boynton and North Tamerton. The B3254 carries about 3000 vehicles per day of which 150 are HGVs (based on the last traffic count which was outside the tourist season). The main employment is agriculture and agricultural services, with construction and public sector employment (the two schools) roughly equal second; tourism and haulage are also important to the village. Self-employment is 3 times the national average.

Layout and communications

The village is built along the B3254, with houses, detached or semi-detached,

bungalows A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is either single-story or has a second story built into a sloping roof (usually with dormer windows), and may be surrounded by wide verandas. The first house in England that was classified as a bu ...

and terraces. There are two small housing estates off the main road, and several farms on the outskirts of the village. The adjoining roads in the village are home to most of the population.

Whitstone and Bridgerule railway station Whitstone and Bridgerule was a railway station on the Bude Branch that closed in 1966. The station was opened in 1898 by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) when the line was extended from Holsworthy station to the new terminus of th ...

on the line from

Okehampton Okehampton ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in West Devon in the English county of Devon. It is situated at the northern edge of Dartmoor, and had a population of 5,922 at the 2011 census. Two electoral wards are based i ...

to Bude served the village, opening in 1898 and closing in 1966.

Places of worship

Whitstone has two places of

worship Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. It may involve one or more of activities such as veneration, adoration, praise, and praying. For many, worship is not about an emotion, it is more about a recognition ...

, a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

Chapel and a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

Church. The Methodist Chapel is at the centre of the village. The Anglican Church of St Anne is in one of the smaller lanes off the main road. There is a long path by the

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

leading down to the church. The church is one of the oldest buildings in the village, built around 1400: it has two aisles and a west tower. Notable features are the Norman doorway and the Norman font. The church was

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 1882.Pevsner, N. (1970) ''Cornwall'', 2nd ed. Penguin Books; pp. 240-241 There is also a separate cemetery for non-churchgoers (given to the village in 1926).

Business and economics

The village has around nine businesses, including a

convenience store A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ticket ...

and a

recording studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for sound recording, mixing, and audio production of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large enoug ...

owned by international singer/songwriter

Tori Amos Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos; August 22, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. She is a classically trained musician with a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Having already begun composing instrumental pieces on piano, Amos won a full ...

References

External links

*
Whitstone Village Website
{{coord, 50.760, -4.459, display=title Civil parishes in Cornwall Villages in Cornwall Manors in Cornwall