Ashcombe 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 authorit ...

in the

Teignbridge Teignbridge is a local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based in Newton Abbot. Other towns in the district include Ashburton, Buckfastleigh, Dawlish and Teignmouth. It is named for the old Teignbridge hundred. ...

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. Devo ...

, England, about eight miles south of the city of Exeter. The parish is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Kenton,

Mamhead Mamhead is a rural village and civil parish near Dawlish and Kenton in Devon, South West England, in the Teignbridge local authority area. Current community venues includMamhead Village Halland The Church of England parish church, dedicated to ...

, Dawlish,

Bishopsteignton Bishopsteignton is a village and civil parish in South Devon, England, between Newton Abbot and Teignmouth, close to the Teign Estuary. The village is on a steep hill, and has a post office cum pharmacy and a small, family-run village shop. T ...

and Chudleigh. In 2001 its population was 77, down from 125 in 1901. The village lies at a height of about 100 m (330 ft) on the south-eastern side of the

Haldon Hills The Haldon Hills, usually known simply as Haldon, is a ridge of high ground in Devon, England. It is situated between the River Exe and the River Teign and runs northwards from Teignmouth, on the coast, for about until it dwindles away nort ...

, in the valley of the stream known as

Dawlish Water Dawlish Water is a minor coastal stream which flows through Devon, England. Dawlish Water, also known as, “The Brook”,rises on the eastern slopes of Haldon Forest in the Haldon Hills by the A380 road and the B3192, (largely heathland and co ...

. It is on a minor road about 1.2 km (3/4 mi) east of the junction on the

A380 road A38 or A-38 may refer to: * A38 (dairy product), a fermented dairy product sold in Denmark * A38 (ship), a party boat on the Danube in Budapest, Hungary * A38 motorway (Netherlands) * A38 road (England) * A38 (Sydney), an arterial route in Sydne ...

known as Ashcombe Cross, which is at the centre of several areas of woodland and heathland, including Grammarcombe Wood, Haldon Forest and Ideford Common. Past Ashcombe, the minor road continues to the coastal town of Dawlish. The village is recorded in

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 manus ...

(1086), when it was held by Ralph of Pomeroy. 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 ...

it was held by Aelfric, who was identified in the Exon Domesday with the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

byname An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...

of 'pig'.

The church, which has an uncommon dedication to

Saint Nectan Saint Nectan, sometimes styled Saint Nectan of Hartland, was a 5th-century holy man who lived in Stoke, Hartland, in the nowadays English, and at the time brythonic-speaking county of Devon, where the prominent St Nectan's Church, Hartland is d ...

, was dedicated in 1259 by Bishop Bronescombe and it has a continuous record of rectors from 1280. It was restored in 1824–26 by

Anthony Salvin Anthony Salvin (17 October 1799 – 17 December 1881) was an English architect. He gained a reputation as an expert on medieval buildings and applied this expertise to his new buildings and his restorations. He restored castles and country h ...

who was at the time also working on the nearby

Mamhead House Mamhead House, Mamhead, Devon, is a country house dating from 1827. Its origins are older but the present building was constructed for Robert William Newman, an Exeter merchant, in 1827–1833 by Anthony Salvin. The house is Grade I listed as D ...

. Some older features remain in the church: the bench-ends and

Perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It ca ...

arches carry heraldry related to the Kirkham family, lords of the manor at the time, and there is some medieval and 17th-century stained glass. Rectory 1810

The Rectory was built in 1810 by the Rector J.M Wade, probably also designed by Salvin. Also within the parish is Ashcombe Tower (1935), built for

Ralph Rayner Brigadier Sir Ralph Herbert Rayner MBE (13 January 1896 – 17 July 1977) was a British Conservative Party politician. Rayner was commissioned into the Duke of Wellington's Regiment, in which he served as a signals officer. He was seconded to th ...

, MP by

Brian O'Rorke Edward Brian O'Rorke (1901 – 1974) was a New-Zealand-born British architect and interior designer. Early life and education Brian O'Rorke was born at Fendalton, Christchurch, New Zealand, on 14 June 1901, the third son of Edward Dennis O'Ror ...

; the only major country house that he designed. Ashcombe has a few diverse businesses from traditional farming to holiday cottages and outdoor activity centre which employ many local people. The Ashcombe Village Club is a not-for-profit

community centre Community centres, community centers, or community halls are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole co ...

for the village which donates profits to charity.

References

External links

Devon Local Studies - Ashcombe community page

Ashcombe at GENUKI
* {{authority control Villages in Devon Teignbridge