Challacombe
- Not to be confused with Challacombe, Dartmoor
| Challacombe | |
| Devon | |
|---|---|
 Challacombe | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SS693410 |
| Location: | 51°9’12"N, 3°52’10"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Barnstaple |
| Postcode: | EX21 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | North Devon |
Challacombe is a small village in Devon on the edge of Exmoor and a mile and a half west of the Somerset border. The village has a small general shop/Post Office and a single pub, the Black Venus. The whole village is set upon one road and is close to Simonsbath.
Sights of the village
Believed to be the only inn in Britain bearing this name, The Black Venus Inn is an old stone-built pub, a historic 16th-century building with low ceiling and original beams.[1]
West Challacombe Manor is a mediæval manor house in the area. It is described as a "white-washed house with rendered walls and Georgian framed windows on the south slope of Little Hangman Hill looks like an archetypal Devon farmhouse rather than a mediæval manor house."[2] It was restored between 1993-1999.
Also of note are the historic Packhorse Bridge and Challacombe Church.
The nearby Shoulsbury Castle is an Iron Age hill fort.
Name
The name 'Challacombe' literally means 'cold valley', from Old English ceald cumb. The village was recorded as Celdecomba in the Domesday Book.
There was once another Challacombe in Devon, on the other side of the county on Dartmoor, the abandoned site of which is known as Challacombe mediæval village.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Challacombe) |
References
- ↑ Bradt, Hilary (13 July 2010). Slow Devon & Exmoor. Bradt Travel Guides. p. 246. ISBN 978-1-84162-322-1. https://books.google.com/books?id=Vdmqli-PYo4C&pg=PA246. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
- ↑ Emery, Anthony (9 March 2006). Greater Mediæval Houses of England and Wales, 1300-1500: Volume 3, Southern England. Cambridge University Press. p. 679. ISBN 978-0-521-58132-5. https://books.google.com/books?id=g7EXvaDEYioC&pg=PA679. Retrieved 30 September 2012.