Willand 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

Mid Devon Mid Devon is a local government district in Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, t ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It is about north of

Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...

and north of

Cullompton Cullompton () is a town and civil parish in the district of Mid Devon and the county of Devon, England. It is north-east of Exeter and lies on the River Culm. In 2021, the parish as a whole had a population of 10,071, while the built-up area o ...

. In 1991 the population was 3750 although recently this has grown considerably. The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is ST037110. Willand is a major part of Lower Culm

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 t ...

. The ward population at the 2011 Census was 5,808. The parish is surrounded, clockwise from the north, by the parishes of

Halberton Halberton is a village and civil parish in Devon, England. It is situated between the historic market towns of Tiverton, Devon, Tiverton and Cullompton. The Grand Western Canal runs around to the north and west of the village. The large parish ...

Uffculme Uffculme (, ) is a village and civil parish located in the Mid Devon district of Devon, England. Situated in the Blackdown Hills National Landscape, Blackdown Hills on the B3440, close to the M5 motorway and the Bristol–Exeter line, Bristol– ...

and

. Willand has probably had a settlement since the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

but is first recorded in 1042 as having "belonged to Ethmar". It historically formed part of the hundred of Halberton. The church of St Mary the Virgin is medieval; it has a small tower and a chancel, nave and north aisle. The south porch has some decoration and there is a late medieval rood screen (probably c. 1400 in date and fairly simple in design). There is one pub, The Halfway House, and a country manor, situated next to Diggerland, called the Verbeer Manor. It has one primary school, Willand School, that has around 300 pupils. From Willand, pupils go to Cullompton Community College, Uffculme School, or to other secondary schools in the area. Willand has a football club, Willand Rovers F.C., who play at the Stan Robinson Stadium on Silver Street. Willand also has a village hall, where a number of social activities take place, such as

short mat bowls Short mat bowls is an indoor sport in which players attempt to score points by rolling a heavy ball along a fairly flat surface, to gain as many shots as possible by getting their bowls nearer to the jack than their opponents, and so outscore t ...

and coffee mornings. Alongside the village hall is Willand Tennis Club. The Bristol to Exeter railway line was completed in 1844, and a station, Tiverton Road, was opened in Willand to serve the nearby town of Tiverton; this was renamed

Tiverton Junction railway station There are 22 disused railway stations on the Bristol to Exeter line between and . The line was completed in 1844 at which time the temporary terminus at Beambridge was closed. The most recent closure was Tiverton Junction which was replaced b ...

when a branch line reached the town, and also became the junction for the

Culm Valley Light Railway The Culm Valley Light Railway was a standard gauge branch railway that operated in the English county of Devon. It ran for just under from Tiverton Junction station on the Bristol to Exeter line, through the Culm valley to Hemyock. It was in ...

in 1876. Both branch lines had closed by 1975, and the station closed in 1986 when Tiverton Parkway was opened. The

M5 motorway The M5 is a motorway in England linking the Midlands with the South West England, South West. It runs from junction 8 of the M6 motorway, M6 at West Bromwich near Birmingham to Exeter in Devon. Heading south-west, the M5 runs east of West Brom ...

bypasses the village; junctions are at Cullompton and Tiverton Parkway. Adjacent to the railway line there is a large poultry processing factory, part of the

2 Sisters Food Group 2 Sisters Food Group, a subsidiary of Boparan Holdings Ltd, is a privately owned food manufacturing company with head offices in Birmingham, England primarily focusing on private label manufacturing for retailer and food service markets. Esta ...

, who purchased it from

Lloyd Maunder Lloyd Maunder are an Exeter, Devon based group of West Country retail butchers, a major producer of locally reared beef, pork and chicken products. History FJP Maunder established a meat processing facility at Witheridge, Devon in 1879. He opened ...

in 2008.

Geology

A survey carried out in 2015–17 found that the location was subject to an annual uplift of 2 cm, the cause of which is unknown.

References

External links

{{Mid Devon Villages in Mid Devon District Civil parishes in Devon