Rousdon

Rousdon
Devon
Combpyne Rousdon, at Rousdon
Location
Grid reference:	SY294912
Location:	50°43’0"N, 2°59’55"W
Data
Post town:	Lyme Regis
Postcode:	DT7
Local Government
Council:	=East Devon
Parliamentary constituency:	East Devon

Rousdon is a village in the easternmost confines of Devon off the A3052 road between Colyford in Devon and Lyme Regis in Dorset.

The small village developed around the Mansion of the Peek family in the early 19th century. A boarding school called Allhallows moved there from Honiton in 1937 and closed in 1998.

Immediately to the south are the coastal cliffs and The Undercliff wilderness area that resulted from a landslip in 1839. The South West Coast Path is the only route through it and there is no public right of way from Rousdon to that path.

History

The parish and manor were anciently known over time as: Dona (in the Domesday Book of 1086), 'Dune', 'la Dune', 'Doune', 'Rawesdon', 'Doune Rauf', 'Doune Rafe', 'Downraff', 'Rowston in Axmouth', 'Rowston alias Downe Ralfe', 'Rowsedown', etc. The Devon historian Risdon called the place 'Rowsedown', whilst his contemporary Pole called it 'Doune Raph'.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Rousdon)