Fremington is a large village,

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 ...

and former manor in

North Devon North Devon is a local government district in Devon, England. North Devon Council is based in Barnstaple. Other towns and villages in the North Devon District include Braunton, Fremington, Ilfracombe, Instow, South Molton, Lynton and Lyn ...

, England, the historic centre of which is situated three miles (5 km) west of

Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town in North Devon, England, at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool and won great wealth. Later it imported Irish wool, bu ...

. The village lies between the south bank of the tidal estuary of the

River Taw The River Taw () rises at Taw Head, a spring on the central northern flanks of Dartmoor, crosses North Devon and at the town of Barnstaple, formerly a significant port, empties into Bideford Bay in the Bristol Channel, having formed a large ...

and a small inlet of that river known as Fremington Pill. The parish is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Heanton Punchardon,

Ashford Ashford may refer to: Places Australia *Ashford, New South Wales *Ashford, South Australia *Electoral district of Ashford, South Australia Ireland *Ashford, County Wicklow *Ashford Castle, County Galway United Kingdom *Ashford, Kent, a town **B ...

, West Pilton,

, Tawstock, Horwood, Lovacott and Newton Tracey, and

Instow Instow is a village in north Devon, England. It is on the estuary where the rivers Taw and Torridge meet, between the villages of Westleigh and Yelland and on the opposite bank to Appledore. There is an electoral ward with the same name. Th ...

. Fremington Quay was formerly a port on the River Taw, half a mile north of the village centre. Fremington was formerly a

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

which sent members to Parliament in the reign of King

Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring r ...

(1327–77). The parish includes the neighbouring former hamlets (greatly expanded in the 20th century) of Bickington to the east and

Yelland Yelland is a village of 2,000 inhabitants situated in North Devon between Instow and Fremington in the English county of Devon. Yelland is included within the parish of Fremington. Amenities There is a garage, and a small industrial park. R ...

to the west. Fremington, Bickington and Yelland, all on the B3223 main road from Barnstaple to

have, according to Hoskins (1959), been spoilt by almost uninterrupted ribbon-building to provide housing for commuters to Barnstaple, but some old houses survive near the parish church.

History

Fremington hundred was one of the 32 historic

hundreds of Devon A hundred is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. Hundred may also refer to: Units and divisions * Hundred (word) formerly also equal to 120 or other values * Hundred (unit) sometimes equal to 120 or other values ** Hundredweight (c ...

. Owing to its quay and right to hold certain fairs or markets, it was briefly a

that sent members to Parliament in the reign of

. The manor of Fremington was held by the Acland family of Barnstaple, a junior branch of the

Acland Baronets There have been four baronetcies created for members of the Acland family, which originated in the 12th century at the estate of Acland in the parish of Landkey, North Devon, two in the Baronetage of England and two in the Baronetage of the Un ...

of Killerton in Devon and Holnicote in Somerset, which originated in the 12th century at the estate of

Acland, Landkey The estate of Acland (''alias'' Accelana,Risdon, p.325 Akeland etc.) in the parish of Landkey, near Barnstaple in North Devon, England, was from 1155 the earliest known seat of the influential and wealthy family of Acland, to which it gave the ...

in North Devon, and which by the 19th century was one of the largest landowners in the Southwest of England. It passed to Richard II who granted it to his half-brother John Holland, Earl of Huntingdon. Following Holland's execution in January 1400 for his rebellion against Henry IV, who had usurped the throne from Richard, the keeping of the manor of Fremington was given in May 1400 to

John Stourton (died 1438) John Stourton (died 1438) of Preston Plucknett in Somerset was seven times MP for Somerset, in 1419, 1420, December 1421, 1423, 1426, 1429 and 1435.Stourton, John I (d.1438), of Preston Plucknett, Som.', published in History of Parliament: House of ...

Preston Plucknett Preston Plucknett is a suburb of Yeovil in Somerset, England. It was once a small village, and a separate civil parish until 1930, when it was absorbed into the neighbouring parishes of Yeovil, Brympton and West Coker. It was listed in the Dome ...

in Somerset, 7 times MP for

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lor ...

, together with William Yerde, MP.

Demography

The population of Fremington, according to the census of 1801, was 875. This number increased gradually in the forty years to 1841, to 1,326 however the rate of increase slowed during the next 10 years and coinciding with the arrival of the railway fell from 1,351 in 1851 to 1,194 in 1901 and slightly lower in 1931. Population growth resumed after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and saw more than a doubling between 1961 and 2011, to 4,310 people. Data for 1801–1961 is available at Britain Through Time. The

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanist ...

and 2011 Censuses give detailed information about the village. The 1848 Samuel Lewis national survey shows the parish had , of which were waste or common land. Samuel Lewis (1848) ''Topographical Dictionary of England'', 7th ed. The number of dwellings in the village was relatively static between the first Ordnance Survey series in the 1880s until

. Fremington has since multiplied in population. By 2001, the population of the village (rather than the parish) was approximately 4,250.

Fremington House

The large early Georgian red-brick mansion known as Fremington House, situated 50 metres east of St Peter's Church, and clearly visible from the main road, is the former

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals ...

built by Richard II Acland (1679–1729), MP for

1708–13. It was re-modelled in the 19th century by his eventual heirs the Arundell-Yeo family, who added a bow window which displays on three large terracotta relief panels the arms of Acland, Barbor and Yeo quartering Arundell. Between 1943 and 1945 Fremington House and grounds was used by the US army as "Fremington Training Camp", a hospital and rehabilitation centre. On the departure of the US Army in 1945, the house and grounds were used by the British Army as the "School of Combined Operations", commanded by an admiral. In the late 1950s it was used by amphibious squadrons of the Royal Army Service Corps and Royal Corps of Transport. The mansion house served as the officers mess of 18 Company (Amphibian). In the 1970s it served as an army training camp. In 1980 Fremington House was sold by the army and became a nursing home.Christie The army camp, which occupied about 50 acres of land, remained, but closed on 1 October 2009 when it was no longer economically viable to keep open, as it was hardly used outside the summer months.

Clay works

Fremington is famous for "Fishley Pottery", made by the family of that name in the Combrew area, examples of which are in the collection of the

Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon is a local museum covering the history and culture of the North Devon area and which is located in The Square in Barnstaple in Devon. The displays range from prehistoric times to the Victorian era. The build ...

. Excellent, stone-free clay pits (now mainly worked out) exist in the eastern half of the parish and were also owned by Brannam Pottery and used for their " Barum Ware". The clay may have formed in varve lakes, near an ice deposit which lay over Fremington during the

Last Glacial Maximum The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Late Glacial Maximum, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period that ice sheets were at their greatest extent. Ice sheets covered much of Northern North America, Northern Eu ...

or previous glaciations such as the Anglian (MIS12) or the Wolstonian glaciation (MIS6) Unusually,

glacial deposit image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...

s are found here in the county of Devon. Two patches of

boulder clay Boulder clay is an unsorted agglomeration of clastic sediment that is unstratified and structureless and contains gravel of various sizes, shapes, and compositions distributed at random in a fine-grained matrix. The fine-grained matrix consists o ...

lie over the centre of the parish's bedrock. The next nearest boulder clay deposits are in the

Gower Peninsula Gower ( cy, Gŵyr) or the Gower Peninsula () in southwest Wales, projects towards the Bristol Channel. It is the most westerly part of the historic county of Glamorgan. In 1956, the majority of Gower became the first area in the United Kingdom ...

, South Wales, approximately 45 miles (72 km) due north of Fremington across the

Bristol Channel The Bristol Channel ( cy, Môr Hafren, literal translation: "Severn Sea") is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Se ...

. The nearest deposit of boulder clay in England is in the central

Cotswolds The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of J ...

, 6 miles (10 km) due east of Bourton-on-the-Water and approximately 140 miles (225 km) north-east of Fremington. The existence of the boulder clay is puzzling as the southernmost limit of the Devensian glaciation is believed to have been located over South Wales. There are few other signs of glaciation in North Devon to support an extension to a more southerly limit. It has been suggested that the surface covering was in some way attached to an ice-mass that drifted across the Bristol Channel and deposited the till over Fremington. However this does not fully explain the presence of the nearly co-located varve clay beds.

Fremington Quay

Fremington Quay was once significant in the import and export of many goods. It had railway sidings, cranes, and other apparatus used for the export of ball clay and import of coal. Between the early to mid-twentieth century it was the busiest port (based on tonnage) between

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city, Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Glouces ...

and Land's End. An

abattoir A slaughterhouse, also called abattoir (), is a facility where animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a packaging facility. Slaughterhouses that produce meat that is no ...

was formerly located here. The quay has been redeveloped as an amenity facility with restaurant and provides wide views over the

estuary. It has been a

Conservation Area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

since 1996.

Transport

The A39 trunk road, which forms the main route to north-west Devon and north-east Cornwall, was diverted 2 miles (3 km) south of the village in 1989, relieving the village of its annual summer traffic jams. Fremington is served by Stagecoach Devon 21/21A – ''The North Devon Wave'' – Barnstaple – Bideford, Westward Ho! and Appledore, and Stagecoach Devon 5B – Barnstaple –

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 ...

Education

The West Fremington Presbyterian School for Boys was set up in 1873 by Presbyterian minister The

Reverend The Reverend is an honorific style most often placed before the names of Christian clergy and ministers. There are sometimes differences in the way the style is used in different countries and church traditions. ''The Reverend'' is correctly ...

William Morgan Topps with the assistance of his father, local landowner William Desmond Topps. The old school house was sold by Devon County Council in 1982 and converted to private dwelling. The school, that exists today as Fremington Community Primary & Nursery School, is near the centre of the post-war village expansion.

Culture

The Fremington great meat pie is described in a song included in ''Devon Tradition'' (Topic Records 12TS349), 1979. Sporting and open land facilities are provided by Fremington civil (administrative) parish council across all of the localities of the village, as well as having a village hall that may be hired by any of the residents of the whole parish. Allied is a Community Group who engage in charitable fundraising. The 1st Fremington

Air Scouts Air Scouts are a part of the Scout movement with a particular emphasis on an aviation themed programme and/or flying-based activities. Air Scouts follow the same basic programme as other Scouts, but they devote certain amounts of time focused o ...

group is also in the village.

Commercial premises

Fremington has two

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

s, The Fox and the New Inn, situated almost next door to each other. Little Bridge House in the village is a children's hospice run by

Children's Hospice South West Children's Hospice South West (CHSW) is a registered charity that provides palliative, respite, end of life and bereavement care for life-limited and terminally ill children and their families from the South West England region. It oversees thr ...

St Peter's Church

The parish church St Peter's was subject to thorough

Victorian restoration The Victorian restoration was the widespread and extensive refurbishment and rebuilding of Church of England churches and cathedrals that took place in England and Wales during the 19th-century reign of Queen Victoria. It was not the same proces ...

in 1867 to the designs of the leading architect Sir

George Gilbert Scott Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he started ...

. The stone pulpit was buried during the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

and retains traces of its original colour. St Peter's medieval tower unusually is positioned at the east end of the church, to the north of the chancel.

Sport

greyhound racing Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around a track. There are two forms of greyhound racing, track racing (normally around an oval track) and coursing; the latter is now banned in most countries. Tr ...

track was opened by the Barnstaple & District Greyhound Racing Club on 6 February 1937 at Tews Lane, Bickington. The racing was independent (not affiliated to the sports governing body the

National Greyhound Racing Club The National Greyhound Racing Club was an organisation that governed Greyhound racing in the United Kingdom. History The National Greyhound Racing Club (NGRC) was formed in 1928 and this body would be responsible for regulation, licensing and the ...

) and known as a flapping track, which was the nickname given to independent tracks. Racing over 340 and 400 yards continued for just two more years with winter breaks in 1937 and 1938.

Railway

The Tarka Trail cycle track (also part of the

South West Coast Path The South West Coast Path is England's longest waymarked long-distance footpath and a National Trail. It stretches for , running from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, to Poole Harbour in Dorset. Because it rises ...

), which follows the course of the railway from Barnstaple to Torrington, passes over Fremington Pill via the old London and South Western Railway iron bridge (railway line closed 1982; dismantled 1987) at Fremington Quay on the old Barnstaple to Torrington railtrack bed. The original railway was first planned in an

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of parliame ...

in 1838, and laid in 1846 connecting the ''Penhill'' with Barnstaple at a cost of £20 000. A number of boats are moored here (in the Pill). The 'Quay Cafe' is located here. Whilst rather charmingly built in the style of a railway station, it is not the original one which was located the other side of the Tarka Trail where an original platform still exists. Other features around the Pill include a couple of

lime kiln A lime kiln is a kiln used for the calcination of limestone ( calcium carbonate) to produce the form of lime called quicklime (calcium oxide). The chemical equation for this reaction is : CaCO3 + heat → CaO + CO2 This reaction can take pla ...

s, now thoroughly fenced off to prevent accidents. The station was one stop after the still active railway station of

, to which Fremington is linked directly by the wide scenic path described instead.

Army camp

Fremington Army Camp was located here to be within easy marching distance (800 m) from the railway station at the Quay. The site was used by the US Army's 313th Station Hospital for post-D-Day rehabilitation, with room for 2,000 patients. It started receiving casualties on 20 July 1944. It economically was complemented by the still current Marines and Air Force presence at

Royal Marines Base Chivenor Royal Marines Barracks Chivenor is a British military base used primarily by 3 Commando Brigade. It is situated on the northern shore of the River Taw estuary, adjacent to the South West Coast Path, on the north coast of Devon, England. The nea ...

, a mile (2 km) northwards on the opposite bank of the River Taw, and the Amphibious Trials and Training Unit of the

Royal Marines The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious warfare, amphibious light infantry and also one of the :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, five fighti ...

at Arromanches Camp,

, 2 miles (4 km) to the west. The camp was closed in autumn 2009 and between the years of 2015 and 2020 was redeveloped into the Riverside Park and Water's Edge estates.

References

;Sources * Pauline Brain ''Some Men who Made Barnstaple'' N. Devon Art Potters, 2010
US Army history
R. L. Diveley & M. Cleveland. ''Surgery in World War II'', Volume II, Chapter 6.

External links

Fremington Parish Council
*
Devon County Council Local History of Fremington

GENUKI entry for Fremington

{{authority control Villages in Devon Former manors in Devon