Christow 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 southwest of Exeter. The village is in the Teign Valley, just off the B3193 road that links Chudleigh and Dunsford. Christow is on the eastern edge of

Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous P ...

National Park.

Manor

The parish includes the

tything A tithing or tything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally ten hides (and hence, one tenth of a hundred). Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of a manor or civil parish. The tithing's leader or s ...

Canonteign Canonteign (originally "Canons' Teign") is an historic tything in the parish of Christow, near Chudleigh, in South Devon, England and situated in the valley of the River Teign. The 'canon' in the name refers to the Augustinian canons regular, ei ...

, where there are two notable historic houses. Canonteign Barton is a late Tudor stone house and a

Grade I listed building 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 Irel ...

. Canonteign House is a neo-classical building completed for Captain Pownoll Pellew, who in the last year of his life succeeded his father as

Viscount Exmouth Viscount Exmouth, of Canonteign in the County of Devon, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. History The title was created in 1816 for the prominent naval officer Edward Pellew, 1st Baron Exmouth. He had already been created a baro ...

Parish church

Christow's Church of England parish church of St James the Apostle has a 12th-century

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

baptismal font but otherwise seems to be largely a 15th-century building. The west tower is a

Gothic Survival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

addition of 1630 and has a

ring Ring may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell :(hence) to initiate a telephone connection Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...

of eight bells. John III and Christopher IV Pennington of

Stoke Climsland Stoke Climsland is a village in the valley of the River Tamar, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom within the civil parish of Stokeclimsland. The population of the parish including Luckett at the 2011 census was 1,703. An electoral ward of the s ...

, Cornwall cast a ring of six bells for the tower in 1785.

John Taylor & Co John Taylor Bell Foundry (Loughborough) Limited, trading as John Taylor & Co and commonly known as Taylor's Bell Foundry, Taylor's of Loughborough, or simply Taylor's, is the world's largest working bell foundry. It is located in Loughborough, ...

Loughborough Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England, the seat of Charnwood Borough Council and Loughborough University. At the 2011 census the town's built-up area had a population of 59,932 , the second large ...

, Leicestershire added a new treble and second bell in 1973, increasing the ring to eight. Inside the church are monuments including two to Admiral

Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth Admiral Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, GCB (19 April 1757 – 23 January 1833) was a British naval officer. He fought during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the Napoleonic Wars. His younger brother I ...

and his son the 2nd Viscount, both of whom died in 1833. The church was restored in 1862 to designs by the architect

Edward Ashworth Edward Ashworth (1814 – 1896) was an English artist and architect from Devon, England, considered to be the West Country's leading ecclesiastical architect. He was elected a member of the Exeter Diocesan Architectural Society in 1847.Bury Or ...

. It is a Grade I listed building.

Railway

The Teign Valley Railway was built from to Christow in 1882. But Christow railway station was not opened until 1903, when the line was extended to Exeter. The line was closed to passenger trains in 1958 and freight in 1961.

Notable former residents

As well as the Viscounts Exmouth, Christow was the home of Lady daughter of the 1st Viscount. She was the wife of Admiral Sir Lawrence Halsted, died in 1835 and is buried at Christow. Arthur Marshall (1910–89) lived in Christow in later life, and fictionalised the village as "Appleton". The adventurers

The Turner Twins Hugo Turner FRGS and Ross Turner FRGS (born 22 October 1988), better known as The Turner Twins, are British adventurers best known for their pioneering expeditions. Biography The twins were born in Exeter and grew up near Christow in Devon. ...

(born 1988) grew up in Christow.

Amenities

Christow has a pub, the Artichoke Inn, that was built in or before the 17th century. The village has also a community primary school. The village has also a Community Hall with tennis courts and a skate park. There is also a GPs' practiceCheriton Bishop and Teign Valley Practice
/ref> and Gidley's Meadow, a small industrial estate.

References

Sources

External links

Christow Parish Council
* {{authority control Civil parishes in Devon Villages in Devon