Culmstock, Devon Family History Guide

Culmstock is an Ancient Parish in the county of Devon.

Other places in the parish include: Nicholshayne, Northend, Spiceland, Upcott, and Prestcott.

Parish church: All Saints

Parish registers begin: 1645

Nonconformists include: Particular Baptist, Society of Friends/Quaker, and Wesleyan Methodist.

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

CULMSTOCK, a village, a parish, and a sub-district, in the district of Wellington and county of Devon. The village stands on the river Culme, 4½ miles ENE of Tiverton Junction r. station, and 7 NE of Collumpton; has a post office under Wellington, Somerset; was once a market-town; and still has fairs on 21 May and the Wednesday before Michaelmas day. The parish includes also the hamlets of Northend, Nicholshayne, Prestcott, and Upcott. Acres, 3,494. Real property, £5,582. Pop., 1,102. Houses, 249. The property is much sub-divided. The manor belonged, before the Conquest, to the bishops of the diocese; and belongs still to the dean and chapter of Exeter. Culmstock Beacon, on a lofty hill, is a well-preserved ancient structure. A considerable woollen trade was formerly carried on, but has died away. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Exeter. Value, £250. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Exeter. The church is of the 14th century; consists of nave, chancel, and aisles, with western embattled tower; and contains a small piscina and a fine altar-piece. A yew-tree grows from the wall of the tower, at about 4 feet from the embattlements. A Wesleyan chapel is in Culmstock village; and a Baptist one at Prestcott. Charities, £9. The sub-district contains five parishes. Acres, 20,812. Pop., 4,435. Houses, 935.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

Topographical Dictionary of England 1845

Culmstock (All Saints), a parish, in the union of Wellington, hundred of Hemyock, Cullompton and N. divisions of Devon, 7 miles (N. E.) from Cullompton; containing 1446 inhabitants, of whom several are employed in the woollen manufacture. Fairs for cattle are held on the 21st of May, and on the Wednesday after the 29th of September. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter of Exeter, the appropriators, and valued in the king’s books at £16: the great tithes have been commuted for £320, and the vicarial for £355; the glebe contains 4 ¼ acres, to which there is a glebe-house. The church contains a handsome stone screen, with a doorway enriched and canopied with foliage, and was enlarged in 1824. There are meeting-houses for Baptists, the Society of Friends, and Wesleyans. A school is partly supported by the vicar, and partly by subscription; and another is in union with the National Society.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis Fifth Edition Published London; by S. Lewis and Co., 13, Finsbury Place, South. M. DCCC. XLV.

Maps

Vision of Britain historical maps

Administration

  • County: Devon
  • Civil Registration District: Wellington (Somerset)
  • Probate Court: Court of the Peculiars of the Dean and Chapter of Exeter
  • Diocese: Exeter
  • Rural Deanery: Post-1847 – Tiverton, Pre-1848 – None
  • Poor Law Union: Wellington
  • Hundred: Hemyock
  • Province: Canterbury