Parracombe Old church of St Petrock - geograph

Parracombe is a rural settlement south-west of Lynton, in Devon, England. It is situated in the Heddon Valley, on Exmoor. The population at the 2011 census was 293. A number Bronze Age barrows exist nearby, along with several other small earth-works throughout the parish.

Beacon Castle Beacon Castle is an Iron Age hill fort close to Parracombe in Devon, England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest a ...

and

Voley Castle Voley Castle is an Iron Age hill fort situated close to Parracombe in north Devon, England. The fort is situated on a promontory on the eastern side of Heale Down, approximately above sea level. It is close to another Iron Age hill fort at Beac ...

both Iron Age Hill forts are situated nearby. Rowley Barton ("rough clearing") was a manor mentioned in the Domesday Book along with East and West Middleton. Holwell Castle, at Parracombe was a

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 ...

motte and bailey A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or Bailey (castle), bailey, surrounded by a protective Rampart (fortification ...

castle built to guard the junction of the east–west and north–south trade routes, enabling movement of people and goods and the growth of the population. Alternative explanations for its construction suggest it may have been constructed to obtain taxes at the

River Heddon The River Heddon is a river in Devon, in the south of England. Running along the western edges of Exmoor, the river reaches the North Devon coast at Heddon's Mouth. The nearest road access to the beach is at ''Hunter's Inn'', approximately sou ...

bridging place, or to protect and supervise silver mining in the area around Combe Martin. It was in diameter and high above the bottom of a rock cut ditch which is deep. It was built in the late 11th or early 12th century. Parracombe's St Petrock's Church is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. Until 1935 the village was served by a halt on the

Lynton & Barnstaple Railway The Lynton and Barnstaple Railway (L&B) opened as an independent railway in May 1898. It was a single track, narrow gauge railway and was slightly over long running through the rugged and picturesque area bordering Exmoor in North Devon, ...

which ran close to the centre of the settlement.

References

External links

* {{authority control Exmoor Villages in Devon