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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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
and former manor in
North Devon North Devon is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based just outside Barnstaple, the district's largest town. The district also includes the towns of Ilfracombe, Lynton and Lynmouth and Sout ...
, England, the historic centre of which is situated west of
Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town and civil parish in the North Devon district of Devon, England. The town lies at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool from ...
. The village lies between the south bank of the tidal estuary of the
River Taw The River Taw () in England 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 Barnstaple Bay in the Bristol Channel, having form ...
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, West Pilton,
Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town and civil parish in the North Devon district of Devon, England. The town lies at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool from ...
, Tawstock, Horwood, Lovacott and Newton Tracey, and Instow. Fremington Quay was formerly a port on the River Taw, north of the village centre. Fremington was formerly a
borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, 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 ...
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 from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring royal authority after t ...
(1327–77). The parish includes the neighbouring former hamlets (greatly expanded in the 20th century) of Bickington to the east and Yelland to the west. It has many public woodland and even coastal walks. Fremington, Bickington and Yelland, all on the B3223 main road from Barnstaple to Instow 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 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...
was one of the 32 historic hundreds of Devon. Owing to its quay and right to hold certain fairs or markets, it was briefly a
borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, 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 ...
that sent members to Parliament in the reign of
Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring royal authority after t ...
. The manor of Fremington was held by the Acland family of Barnstaple, a junior branch of the Acland Baronets of Killerton in Devon and Holnicote in Somerset, which originated in the 12th century at the estate of Acland, Landkey 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) 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 31 March 1930, when it was absorbed into the neighbouring parishes of Yeovil, Brympton and West Coker. It was listed in ...
in Somerset, 7 times MP for
Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...
, 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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
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 year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...
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
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. Fremington has since multiplied in population. By 2001, the population of the village (rather than the parish) was approximately 4,250.


Fremington Manor

The large early Georgian red-brick mansion known as Fremington Manor, 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 usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...
built by Richard II Acland (1679–1729), MP for
Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town and civil parish in the North Devon district of Devon, England. The town lies at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool from ...
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 Manor 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 Manor was sold by the army and became a nursing home.Christie The army camp, which occupied about 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 Brannam Pottery was a British pottery started by Thomas Backway Brannam in Barnstaple, Devon, England, in 1848. It later became part of the "rustic" wing of the art pottery movement. History Thomas Brannam took over the lease of an existing p ...
and used for their " Barum Ware". The clay may have formed in
varve A varve is an annual layer of sediment or sedimentary rock. The word 'varve' derives from the Swedish word ''varv'' whose meanings and connotations include 'revolution', 'in layers', and 'circle'. Of the many rhythmites in the geological record ...
lakes, near an ice deposit which lay over Fremington during the
Last Glacial Maximum The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Last Glacial Coldest Period, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period where ice sheets were at their greatest extent between 26,000 and 20,000 years ago. Ice sheets covered m ...
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 The Gower Peninsula (), or simply Gower (), is a peninsula in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is the most westerly part of the historic county of Glamorgan, and is now within the City and County of Swansea. It projects towards th ...
, South Wales, approximately due north of Fremington across the
Bristol Channel The Bristol Channel (, literal translation: "Severn Sea") is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales (from Pembrokeshire to the Vale of Glamorgan) and South West England (from Devon to North Somerset). It extends ...
. The nearest deposit of boulder clay in England is in the central
Cotswolds The Cotswolds ( ) is a region of central South West England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper River Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and the Vale of Evesham. The area is defined by the bedroc ...
, due east of
Bourton-on-the-Water Bourton-on-the-Water is a village and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England, that lies on a wide flat vale within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The village had a population of 3,296 at the 2011 census. Much of the village ...
and approximately 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 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 ...
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, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...
and
Land's End Land's End ( or ''Pedn an Wlas'') is a headland and tourist and holiday complex in western Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, on the Penwith peninsula about west-south-west of Penzance at the western end of the A30 road. To the east of it is ...
. An
abattoir In livestock agriculture and the meat industry, a slaughterhouse, also called an abattoir (), is a facility where livestock animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a meat ...
was formerly located here. The quay has been redeveloped as an amenity facility with restaurant and provides wide views over the
River Taw The River Taw () in England 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 Barnstaple Bay in the Bristol Channel, having form ...
estuary. It has been a
Conservation Area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewoo ...
since 1996.


Transport

The A39 trunk road, which forms the main route to north-west Devon and north-east Cornwall, was diverted 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 Appledore may refer to: Places England * Appledore, Kent ** Appledore (Kent) railway station * Appledore, Mid Devon, near Tiverton * Appledore, Torridge, North Devon, near Bideford United States * Appledore Island, off the coast of Maine In fic ...
, and Stagecoach Devon 5B – Barnstaple –
Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...
.


Education

The West Fremington Presbyterian School for Boys was set up in 1873 by
Presbyterian minister Presbyterian (or presbyteral) polity is a method of church governance ("ecclesiastical polity") typified by the rule of assemblies of presbyters, or elders. Each local church is governed by a body of elected elders usually called the session (o ...
The
Reverend The Reverend (abbreviated as The Revd, The Rev'd or The Rev) is an honorific style (form of address), style given to certain (primarily Western Christian, Western) Christian clergy and Christian minister, ministers. There are sometimes differen ...
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 Scouting, 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 ...
group is also in the village.


Commercial premises

Fremington has two
public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...
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 A Children's hospice is a hospice specifically designed to help children and young people who are not expected to reach adulthood with the emotional and physical challenges they face, and also to provide respite care for their families. Services ...
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 th ...
.


St Peter's Church

The parish church St Peter's was subject to thorough
Victorian restoration The Victorian restoration was the widespread and extensive wikt:refurbish, refurbishment and rebuilding of Church of England church (building), churches and cathedrals that took place in England and Wales during the 19th-century Victorian era, re ...
in 1867 to the designs of the leading architect Sir
George Gilbert Scott Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), largely 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 ...
. The stone pulpit was buried during the
Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...
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

A
greyhound racing Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around an oval track. The sport originates from Hare coursing, coursing. Track racing uses an artificial lure (usually a form of windsock) that travels ahead of th ...
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 Greyhound racing is a sport in the United Kingdom. The industry uses a parimutuel betting tote system with on-course and off-course be ...
) and known as a flapping track, which was the nickname given to independent tracks. Racing over and continued for just two more years with winter breaks in 1937 and 1938.


Railway

The
Tarka Trail The Tarka Trail is a series of footpaths and cyclepaths (rail trails) around north Devon, England, that follow the route taken by the fictional Tarka the Otter in the book of that name. It covers a total of in a figure-of-eight route, centred ...
cycle track (also part of the
South West Coast Path The South West Coast Path is England's longest waymarked Long-distance footpaths in the UK, long-distance footpath and a National Trail. It stretches for , running from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, to Poole Harb ...
), which follows the course of the railway from Barnstaple to Torrington, passes over Fremington Pill via the old
London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exete ...
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 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 tak ...
s, now thoroughly fenced off to prevent accidents. The station was one stop after the still active railway station of
Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town and civil parish in the North Devon district of Devon, England. The town lies at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool from ...
, 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, northwards on the opposite bank of the River Taw, and the Amphibious Trials and Training Unit of the
Royal Marines The Royal Marines provide the United Kingdom's amphibious warfare, amphibious special operations capable commando force, one of the :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, five fighting arms of the Royal Navy, a Company (military unit), company str ...
at Arromanches Camp, Instow, 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