Bickington

From Wikishire
Jump to: navigation, search
Bickington
Devon
Church and lychgate, Bickington - geograph.org.uk - 1073227.jpg
Church and lychgate, Bickington
Location
Grid reference: SX796725
Location: 50°32’24"N, 3°42’0"W
Data
Population: 311  (2001)
Post town: Newton Abbot
Postcode: TQ12
Local Government
Council: Teignbridge

Bickington is a village on the edge of the Dartmoor National Park in Devon, three miles north-east of Ashburton. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 311.

The village is about five miles west of Newton Abbot, on the River Lemon.

White, in 1850, wrote:

"BICKINGTON, a scattered village on the banks of the Lemon rivulet, and on the Exeter road, 3 miles N.E. of Ashburton, has in its parish 1375 acres and 374 inhabitants. The manor was dismembered many years ago, and the soil belongs to various freeholders. Here is a serge manufactory, employing 150 hands. Wrigwell estate has been held by the Bickford family about 600 years. The Church (St. James,) is an ancient structure, with a tower and three bells. The living is a perpetual curacy, annexed to the vicarage of Ashburton. The tithes were commuted in 1842, the vicarial for £110, and the rectorial for £115. The Dean and Chapter of Exeter are appropriators of the latter, and Mr. Richard Skinner is the lessee. Here is a small Wesleyan Chapel; and the poor have £2 from Plymouth Corporation, as a gift of Benjamin Baron. . . ."[1]

The Tews Lane Playing Fields, of seven and a half acres, have been enrolled as a Queen Elizabeth II Field.

Churches

Bickington Methodist church

The parish church is St Mary The Virgin, and dates from the 15th century, though it may stand on an earlier site. It has a most unusual lychgate leading into the churchyard: the gate is through a house, and has a room over it.

There was formerly a Methodist chapel in the village, now converted into a private house.

Outside links

Commons-logo.svg
("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Bickington)

References

  1. White's Devonshire Directory (1850), on Information on Bickington  from GENUKI
Flag of Devon.svg
 This Devon article is a stub: help to improve Wikishire by building it up.