Shebbear (; ) 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Torridge district Torridge is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in north-west Devon, England. Its council is based in the town of Bideford. The district also includes the towns of Great Torrington, Holsworthy, Devon, Holsworthy and Northam, ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

, England.

History

Shebbear was the third-largest settlement recorded in North Devon 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

, having 76 households, 20 of which were slaves. It was unusual in having no Lord, rather being owned directly by the King. Its pre-conquest Saxon name Sceftbeara (Spear-shaft Wood) gives a clue to its historical importance. It was later centre of

Shebbear Hundred Shebbear Hundred was the name of one of the thirty-two 19th century hundreds of Devon, England. The hundred of Shebbear was organized by the 13th century with many of the parishes of the ancient Domesday hundred of Merton.River Torridge The River Torridge is a river in Devon in England; it rises near Meddon. The river describes a long loop through Devon farming country where its tributaries the Lew and Okement join before meeting the Taw at Appledore and flowing into the Bristol ...

and the island of

Lundy Lundy is an English island in the Bristol Channel. It forms part of the district of Torridge in the county of Devon. About long and wide, Lundy has had a long and turbulent history, frequently changing hands between the British crown and ...

. An electoral ward exists titled Shebbear & Langtree. The 2021 census population of the parish was 1,021. The village shares its name with the Shebbeare family, who owned land in the area, and of which 18th-century political satirist

John Shebbeare John Shebbeare (1709 – 1 August 1788) was a British Tory political satirist. Life Born 1709, he was the eldest son of an attorney and corn-factor of Bideford, Devonshire. A hundred and a village in Devon, where the family had owned land, ...

was a member.

Religion

The church of

St Michael Michael, also called Saint Michael the Archangel, Archangel Michael and Saint Michael the Taxiarch is an archangel and the warrior of God in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The earliest surviving mentions of his name are in third- and second- ...

and All Angels is the

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ...

in the centre of the village. The

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

date back to the 12th century. The south doorway is from about 1180 and is of

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 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

origin; similar doorways exist in

Buckland Brewer Buckland Brewer is a village and civil parish in the Torridge District, Torridge district of Devon, England, 4.7 miles south of Bideford. Historically the parish formed part of Hundred (country subdivision), Shebbear Hundred. According to the ...

Parkham Parkham is a small village, civil parish and former manor situated 5 miles south-west of the town of Bideford in north Devon, England. The parish, which lies within the Kenwith ward in the Torridge district, is surrounded clockwise from the n ...

and Woolfardisworthy. William O’Bryan founded the

Bible Christian Church The Bible Christian Church was a Methodist denomination founded by William O'Bryan (born Bryant), a Wesleyan Methodist local preacher, on 18 October 1815 in North Cornwall. The first society, consisting of just 22 members, met at Lake Farm ...

in Shebbear in 1815. The first Bryanite

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

, Lake chapel, was built in the village in 1817. The Bryanites also founded

Shebbear College Shebbear College is an all-through school, all-through Private schools in the United Kingdom, private co-educational day and boarding school for pupils aged 4 – 18 situated in Shebbear, Devon, Shebbear, Devon, England. The school's 85-acre rura ...

. A symbolic act of reconciliation was held in 2009 between the

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

and

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

communities in Shebbear, after the founding of the Bible Christian Church caused an almost 200 year long religious split. According to the 2021 census, 53.4% of residents are Christian, and 45% report following no religion. 0.3% of residents are Muslim and 0.4% are Buddhist.

Devil's Stone

The Devil's Stone is a large boulder that lies on the village green outside St Michael's Church. At 8 pm on

5 November Events Pre-1600 *1138 – Lý Anh Tông is enthroned as emperor of Vietnam at the age of two, beginning a 37-year reign. * 1499 – The '' Catholicon'', written in 1464 by Jehan Lagadeuc in Tréguier, is published; this is the first Br ...

each year, residents gather outside the church to watch the village bellringers turn the Devil's Stone. This takes place instead of traditional

bonfire night Bonfire Night is a name given to various yearly events marked by bonfires and fireworks. These include Guy Fawkes Night (5 November) in Great Britain; All Hallows' Eve (31 October); May Eve (30 April); Midsummer Eve/Saint John's Eve (23 Jun ...

celebrations. Local legend states that the stone was dropped on the

Devil A devil is the mythical personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conce ...

during a battle with

archangel Michael Michael, also called Saint Michael the Archangel, Archangel Michael and Saint Michael the Taxiarch is an archangel and the warrior of God in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The earliest surviving mentions of his name are in third- and second ...

. Consequently, the stone fell on top of him, flattening him under it. The folklore reasoning for the turning is that it takes a year for the Devil to dig down and up the other side of the rock, at which point it is flipped again, re-trapping him; if the stone is not turned every year disaster will fall on the village. As apparent evidence of this, the stone was not turned on 5 November one year during the

Second World War 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 ...

(either due to blackout measures or to most able-bodied men being enlisted), and after a few days of bad news befalling the village a decision was made to turn the stone anyway. Various alternative versions of the story exist, including that the Devil dropped the stone on the way to the nearby village of

Northlew Northlew is a village and civil parish in the West Devon district of the county of Devon, England. To the west of the village, but within the parish, are the hamlets of West Kimber and East Kimber. The village falls within the electoral ward of ...

, or that it was an original foundation stone for Henscott church which moved across the River Torridge by supernatural means. The village pub, The Devil's Stone Inn, is named after the stone. The inn is said to be haunted. The stone is a conglomerate boulder and is not of local origin, and has been claimed to be a

glacial erratic A glacial erratic is a glacially deposited rock (geology), rock differing from the type of country rock (geology), rock native to the area in which it rests. Erratics, which take their name from the Latin word ' ("to wander"), are carried by gla ...

boulder despite the area not being glaciated in the Last Glacial Period.

Education

Shebbear has three schools: Shebbear Community School, a state primary school for children from 4 to 11 years of age; Little Bears

preschool A preschool (sometimes spelled as pre school or pre-school), also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, play school, is an school, educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they ...

, which lies within the grounds of the community school; and

, a

private school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

for children from 3 to 18 years of age.

Notable people

* Ernest Walter Martin, writer and social historian (born in Shebbear, 1912) * John D. Prior, trade unionist (born in Shebbear, 10 March 1840) * William Strong Hore, clergyman and botanist (vicar of Shebbear, 1855 to 1882) * James Thorne, leader of the Bible Christian Church (born in Shebbear, 1795) * Graeme Ackland, physicist, Shebbear primary school and college pupil.

History

Religion

Devil's Stone

Education

Notable people

Twin towns

References

External links