Aylesbeare 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

East Devon East Devon is a local government district in Devon, England. Its council has been based in Honiton since February 2019, and the largest town is Exmouth (with a population of 34,432 at the time of the 2011 census). The district was formed ...

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, east of

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 ...

. According to the 2001 census the parish, which includes the hamlet of Nutwalls, had a population of 527. Known for the Site of Special Scientific Interest on Aylesbeare Commo

that is managed by the

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a charitable organisation registered in England and Wales and in Scotland. It was founded in 1889. It works to promote conservation and protection of birds and the wider environment thro ...

, Aylesbeare was in the news during 1978 as the scene of the disappearance of Genette Tate. Aylesbeare is on the northern side of the East Devon Pebbled Heathlands. Locally known as Woodbury Common, the heathlands are made up of 8 parish commons, including Aylesbeare Common.

History

Aylesbeare has a long, but lightly recorded, history.

Tumuli A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones built ...

on Aylesbeare Common indicate that the area was inhabited in prehistoric times. By the time of 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 ...

, the village was known as Ailesbergon though, in common with many place names, it had many spellings over the years, including Aillesbir and Ailesberga. The oldest building in the parish is the church, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It dates to the 13th century. Gregory was the first recorded incumbent, in 1261. The church has been rebuilt and restored many times – in the 14th century, a major refurbishment in 1899 and a new roof in 2004. Aylesbeare made national headlines in August 1978 after the disappearance of 13-year-old Genette Tate, who lived in the village. She has never been found. In 2016, the police announced that they believed serial killer Robert Black to be responsible, but could not charge him as he had since died.

Geography, geology and environment

From the highest point of the parish on the Common, the land gradually falls away to the northwest reaching its lowest point of near Exeter International Airport. With an area of , Aylesbeare is slightly below the average for a

parish. The village gives its name to a sequence of mudstone and sandstone rocks of

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest per ...

age, the Aylesbeare Mudstone Group which occurs from the east Devon coast northwards into Somerset. Although the population is widely distributed around the parish, it clusters in Aylesbeare Village itself, the hamlets of Rosamundford and Withen, and small groups of houses on the site of former farm buildings.

Economy

Originally a farming parish, Aylesbeare still has two working farms within the village itself with many others spread throughout the parish. However, agriculture is no longer the main source of employment, with many people working in Exeter and surrounding towns.

References

External links

Devon Local Studies - Aylesbeare community page

RSPB - Aylesbeare Common
* {{authority control Villages in Devon Civil parishes in Devon