Bratton Fleming
| Bratton Fleming | |
| Devon | |
|---|---|
 The White Hart Inn, Bratton Fleming | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SS642376 |
| Location: | 51°7’18"N, 3°56’28"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 928 |
| Post town: | Barnstaple |
| Postcode: | EX31 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | North Devon |
Bratton Fleming is a large village near Barnstaple, in the north of Devon, a few miles west of the bounds of Exmoor. The population in 2011 was recorded as 928 in 2011.
History
The former Manor of Bratton Fleming was owned by a succession of families from the Norman Conquest to the 19th century. The Flemings had their seat at Chimwell, now a farmhouse called Chumhill, which Tristram Risdon said was "one of the largest demesnes of this shire". Benton and Haxton were other small Domesday manors. The great jurist Henry de Bracton was probably born at Bratton, although his claim is also made for Bratton Clovelly.
The village was once served by a railway station, supposedly 'the most beautiful in England', on the narrow gauge Lynton and Barnstaple Railway; the trackbed runs close to the village. The street names Station Road and Station Hill survive.
Church
St Peter's Church was rebuilt on the site of a much older building, in 1861.
The Rev. Gascoigne Canham (d.1667), Rector of Arlington, whose mural monument exists in Arlington Church, and a relative by marriage to the Chichester family of Arlington (a cadet branch of the Chichesters of Raleigh and later of Youlston, lords of the manor of Bratton Fleming), purchased in 1665 the advowson of Bratton Fleming, 2½ miles south-east of Arlington, from Sir Francis Godolphin for £300,[1] and on 27 March 1667 he signed a deed granting the advowson in perpetuity to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, of which he was a member.[2] He also gave £10 toward the "Combination Room" of that college.[3]
A mural monument exists in St Peter's Church, Bratton Fleming, to the Rev. Bartholomew Wortley, the first rector to be appointed by Gonville & Caius College. He was aged about 50 when appointed and remained in office until his death in 1749, aged 97.
See also
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Bratton Fleming) |
References
- Hoskins, W.G. et al: 'Devon' (1954)