Lydford, Devon Family History Guide
Lydford is an Ancient Parish in the county of Devon.
Other places in the parish include: Huckaby, Postbridge, Princetown, Two Bridges, Hexworthy, Dinnabridge, Dartmoor Forest, and Prince-town.
Alternative names: Lidford, Old Lydford
Parish church: St. Petrock
Parish registers begin:
Lydford
- Parish registers: 1716
- Bishop’s Transcripts: 1608
Princetown
- Parish registers: 1807
- Bishop’s Transcripts: None
Nonconformists include: Bible Christian Methodist, Roman Catholic, and Wesleyan Methodist.
Table of Contents
Adjacent Parishes
- Shaugh Prior
- Peter Tavy
- Throwleigh
- Belstone
- South Tawton with South Zeal
- Dean Prior
- Ugborough
- Manaton
- South Brent
- Gidleigh
- North Bovey
- Bridestowe
- Cornwood
- Harford
- Buckfastleigh
- Holne
- Walkhampton
- Widecombe in the Moor
- Lamerton
- Sheepstor
- Okehampton
- Chagford
Parish History
Lydford
A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848
LYDFORD (St. Petrock), a parish, in the union of Tavistock, hundred of Lifton, Lifton and S. divisions of Devon, 7¾ miles (N. by E.) from Tavistock; containing, with Dartmoor Forest, 1213 inhabitants, of whom 933 are in the Forest.
This place, anciently of some consequence, in 997 sustained severe injury from the Danes, who, after the destruction of Tavistock Abbey, burnt forty of the houses in the town of Lydford. In the reign of Edward the Confessor it is recorded as a borough, and had eight burgesses within the walls, and forty-one without: at the time of the Conquest, these had increased to 140; the town was fortified, and was considered of such importance as to be taxed on an equality with London.
In 1238, the Forest of Dartmoor, and the castle of Lydford, were bestowed by the king upon Richard, Earl of Cornwall; and the manor now belongs to the duchy.
Situated in the centre of a mining district, Lydford was the great mart for tin, then the staple commodity of the county; and there are still extant a few pieces of money coined at the mint here, which is said to have existed in the time of Ethelred II. In the reign of Edward I. the place twice sent members to parliament; in 1267, a weekly market was granted, with an annual fair for three days.
The stannary courts were held in the town till the close of the last century, and offenders against the stannary laws were imprisoned in a castle here, the dungeons of which have been considered scarcely less frightful than those of the Spanish inquisition: until the reign of Edward III., a gaol delivery took place only once in ten years.
The village now consists merely of a few cottages; the scenery which surrounds it is of the most beautiful description, and about a quarter of a mile southward is a small bridge of one arch, near which is a romantic fall of the river Lyd, the water rushing over the rugged bed of a narrow chasm of the depth of 80 feet.
The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s books at £15. 13. 9., and in the patronage of the Crown, in right of the duchy of Cornwall: the tithes have been commuted for £144, and there is a glebe-house.
The only remains of the castle consist of the shell of the keep, situated on a mound at the eastern end of an area formerly surrounded by a wall and a ditch; the western side overlooks a narrow dell of considerable depth. In the latter part of the seventeenth century, the foundations of the town gates, and vestiges of the trenches, were visible.
Dartmoor Forest, a dreary but interesting waste, is said to comprise not less than 130,000 acres. Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt, about the year 1800, built a mansion at Tor Royal, in its very heart, made extensive plantations, and much improved the land in the vicinity; and in 1808, at his instigation, a prison was erected for the reception of the numerous French captives that had previously crowded the prison ships at Plymouth.
This immense building comprises, besides an hospital and dwellings for the petty officers, five rectangular edifices, each capable of holding 1600 men. The governor’s house adjoins the prison; and at the distance of a quarter of a mile are the barracks for the guards. For the supply of the prison, numerous tradesmen established themselves in the vicinity; a small town, called Prince Town, was soon formed, and a chapel built; but at the close of the war the place was almost deserted.
The minister of the chapel, however, retains his appointment, and divine service is performed weekly.
In 1819, an act was obtained for making a tramway from Dartmoor to Plymouth. From the granite works with which the line is connected, great quantities of stone are forwarded to the port; and the rail-wagons, on their return, are chiefly loaded with lime, manure, and coal. At Two Bridges, east of Prince Town, a cattle-fair is held on the first Wednesday after August 16th.
Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848
Princetown
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
PRINCETOWN, a village and a chapelry in Lidford parish, Devon.
The village stands in Dartmoor-Forest Quarter, 6 miles N E of Horrabridge r. station, and 7½ E by S of Tavistock; and has a post-office, designated Princetown, Devon, and an inn.
The chapelry contains also a great convict prison; and its limits, in some sense, are conterminate with those of Dartmoor Forest Quarter, which comprise 54, 241 acres. The pop. of that quarter, in 1851, was 1, 697, in 1861, 2, 599; and, in the latter year, 1,089 were in the convict prison.
The prison was erected in 1808-9, at a cost of £127,000, for French prisoners of war; was leased, for some time, to a company manufacturing naphtha from peat; was converted in 1850 into a convict prison; stands on a wild part of Dartmoor, at an elevation of about 1,400 feet above sea-level; occupies an area of about 30 acres, inclosed by a double line of lofty walls; and includes a governor’s house, officers’ residences, an hospital, and five buildings, each 300 feet long and 50 feet wide, for prisoners. Great georgic improvement has been made on much of the land near the village and the prison; and extensive granite quarries are on the W side of North Hessary tor, about 2 miles from the village.
The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of Exeter. Value, not reported. Patron, the Prince of Wales.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
Parish Records
FamilySearch
Use for:
England, Devon, Lydford
Administration
- County: Devon
- Civil Registration District: Tavistock
- Probate Court: Court of the Bishop (Consistory) of the Archdeaconry of Totnes
- Diocese: Exeter
- Rural Deanery: Tavistock
- Poor Law Union: Tavistock
- Hundred: Lifton
- Province: Canterbury