Dunchideock ( , ) is a small

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 ...

on the north eastern slopes of the Haldon Hills in

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. ...

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. It covers an area of 392 hectares (970 acres) and lies about south-west 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 ...

and north-east of

Bovey Tracey Bovey Tracey () is a small town and civil parish in Devon, England, on the edge of Dartmoor, its proximity to which gives rise to the "slogan" used on the town's boundary signs, "The Gateway to the Moor". It is often known locally as "Bovey". ...

. The parish, with a population of 262 in 2001, lacks a compact village, but consists of scattered dwellings. It is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of

Holcombe Burnell Holcombe Burnell is a civil parish in Devon, England, the church of which is about 4 miles west of Exeter City centre. There is no village clustered around the church, rather the nearest village within the parish is Longdown. Only the manor ho ...

, Ide, Shillingford St. George, Kenn, and Doddiscombsleigh. The name ''Dunchideock'' is of

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foo ...

origin. Recorded 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 as ''Donsedoc'', the two parts of the name derive from ''dun'' (fort) and ''coediog'' (wooded), which, according to

W. G. Hoskins William George Hoskins (22 May 1908 – 11 January 1992) was an English local historian who founded the first university department of English Local History. His great contribution to the study of history was in the field of landscape history ...

, refer to the nearby Iron Age hill fort of Cotley Castle. The parish church is dedicated to St Michael and is

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

. It originated in 1308 at the latest, but the present church building, built of red sandstone, was started in the late 14th century. It has been partially rebuilt and restored many times. There is a good font dated to around 1400, some notable carved bench-ends, roof-bosses and rood-screen; and several memorials, most notably to

Aaron Baker Aaron Eli Baker (1610–1683) of Bowhay in the parish of Exminster, near Exeter, Devon, was an English colonial agent of the Honourable East India Company, who served as the first President of the Madras Presidency (1652-1655). He was for the d ...

, who rebuilt the chancel aisle in 1669, and

Stringer Lawrence Major-General Stringer Lawrence (February 1698–10 January 1775) was an English soldier, the first Commander-in-Chief of Fort William. Origins Lawrence was born at Hereford, England, the son of John Lawrence of Hereford by his wife Mary, about ...

. The theological writer Bourchier Wrey Savile was rector of Dunchideock with Shillingford St. George from 1872 to his death in 1888. Within the parish was the former Haldon House which was the home of

Sir Robert Palk, 1st Baronet Sir Robert Palk, 1st Baronet (December 1717 – 29 April 1798) of Haldon House in the parish of Kenn, in Devon, England, was an officer of the British East India Company who served as Governor of the Madras Presidency. In England he served as ...

. Mostly demolished in the 1920s, the remaining wing is now the

Best Western Best Western International, Inc. owns the Best Western Hotels & Resorts brand, which it licenses to over 4,700 hotels worldwide. The franchise, with its corporate headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, includes more than 2,000 hotels in North America. ...

"Lord Haldon Hotel". Also in the parish is Haldon Belvedere, a triangular tower on top of

Haldon 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 ...

that was built by Palk in 1788 in memory of his friend General

. Archie Winckworth, the former owner of Dunchideock House, posted a memoir about the village and its history, including an account of its buried treasure. The cellars of Dunchideock House are fancifully supposed to contain a treacle mine.

References

it is owned by the ellis family which they have owned for 5 generations

External links

{{Commons category-inline, Dunchideock Civil parishes in Devon