Shillingford is a village two miles (3 km) northeast of Bampton on the River Batherm in

Mid Devon Mid Devon is a local government district in 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, t ...

, England, close to the border with

West Somerset West Somerset was a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in the English county of Somerset from 1974 to 2019. The council covered a largely rural area, with a population of 34,900 in an area of ; it was the List of English dist ...

. It is near the Exe Valley. Between 1826 and 1830, a turnpike road was constructed from

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a Minster (church), minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century priory, monastic foundation, owned by the ...

to Bampton. This road later became the A361 (now the B3227), and is referred to by locals as the

Wiveliscombe Wiveliscombe (, ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated west of Taunton. The town has a population of 2,893. The Square, fronted by several listed structures, held the former market. The parish includes the nearby hamlet o ...

Road. Traffic levels on this road fell when the North Devon Link Road to Tiverton, from Junction 27 of the M5, was extended to Barnstaple in 1987, and was designated as the A361, with the old A361 being reclassified as the B3227. Historically, the village had a post office, garage, chapel, saw-mill, water-mill and pub. Today, all of these have been sold off to private owners, with the garage closing in 2011 and the site scheduled for development as four homes. The village pub, The Barleycorn, reopened under new owners as the Barleycorn House Bed and Breakfast in 2006 with five bedrooms. The Devon & Somerset Railway ran behind the village until its closure in 1966, with a link to the

Exe Valley Railway The Exe Valley Railway was a branch line built by the Great Western Railway (GWR) in Devon, England, to link its Bristol to Exeter line with its Devon and Somerset Railway (D&SR), thereby connecting Exeter with (which is in Somerset). The li ...

running towards Tiverton and Exeter, branching off just beyond Morebath Junction Halt. Today, much of the track bed, along with bridges and other railway infrastructure, can be seen behind the village, and along the course of these lines. The village is sometimes confused with places of the same name, like Shillingford St George and Shillingford Abbo
in

South Devon South Devon is the southern part of Devon, England. Because Devon has its major population centres on its two coasts, the county is divided informally into North Devon and South Devon.For exampleNorth DevonanSouth Devonnews sites. In a narrower s ...

and Shillingford, Oxfordshire.

References

* http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=101931 * http://www.itraveluk.co.uk/maps/england/1726/oxfordshire/shillingford.html

External links

Bampton.org - History of Bampton and surrounding area (incl. Shillingford)
Villages in Mid Devon District Civil parishes in Devon {{Devon-geo-stub