Huish, Devon

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Huish
Devon
St James the Less church, Huish - geograph.org.uk - 567493.jpg
St James the Less, Huish
Location
Grid reference: SS533111
Location: 50°52’52"N, 4°5’10"W
Data
Postcode: EX20
Local Government
Council: Torridge
Parliamentary
constituency:
Torridge and West Devon

Huish is a small village in the north of Devon. The eastern boundary of the parish is formed by the River Torridge and the western by the Rivers Mere and Little Mere,[1] and it is surrounded, clockwise from the north, by the parishes of Merton, Dolton, Meeth and Petrockstowe.[2] In 2001 the population of the parish was 49, down from the 76 souls in recorded 1901.[1]

The name of the village was anciently written Hiwis,[3] by which form it appears in the Domesday Book of 1086. The name is the Old English Hiwisc, meaning 'household' or 'hide' (an area of ploughland).

The village is to be found off the A386 road, about five and a half miles north of Hatherleigh, and about seven miles south of Great Torrington.

About the village

Heanton Satchville, the manor house, in 1828

The majority of the parish consists of parkland belonging to Heanton Satchville, the seat of Baron Clinton;[1] the mansion-house is a few hundred yards to the north of the church.

The house was originally built by James Innes-Ker, 5th Duke of Roxburghe (d.1823) and from about 1782 to 1812 known as Innes House.

Parish church

The church, dedicated to St James the Less, was heavily restored in 1873 by the 20th Baron Clinton to the designs of George Edmund Street, work described by Pevsner as "not of his best".[4] The 15th-century tower is the only part that remains unaltered.[5]

The church contains a monument to John Cunningham Saunders, the noted eye surgeon who was born in the parish in 1773.[5]

History

The manor is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Hiwis, the 2nd of the 28 Devonshire holdings of Gotshelm, [6] one of the tenants-in-chief of King William. He held it in demesne.[7] The tenant before the Norman Conquest of 1066 was an Englishman named Alwy.[8] The estate is believed to have been centred on the estate of Lovistone,[9] within the parish.

In Kirkby's Quest, a survey of 1284–5, the manor of Huish was recorded as being held by Richard de Hiwis,[10] whose family had, as was usual, taken their surname from their seat. According to the Jacobean antiquary Sir William Pole, the last in the male line of the de Hiwis family was William de Hiwis, who died without issue late in the reign of King Edward III.

Tristram Risdon (d.1640) relates that the land was purchased by Leonard Yeo who built a new house there. His descendant, also Leonard Yeo, owned the manor in Risdon's time.[11] The estate remained in the Yeo family until sold by Edward Roe Yeo (died 1782). Various 18th century mural monuments to the Yeo family survive in the parish church.

The estate was bought by John Dufty, but in 1782 he sold it to Sir James Norcliffe Innes (d.1823), later 5th Duke of Roxburghe, who built a new mansion house on the estate, which he called Innes House. He in turn sold the manor, with its house, to Richard Eales. Then in about 1812 Richard Eales sold the manor to Robert Cotton St John Trefusis, 18th Baron Clinton.[12] Clinton renamed the estate 'Heanton Satchville', after his former family home at Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe, across the valley to the west, which had burned down in 1795.[13]

In the early 20th century, the 19th Baron Clinton inherited the vast former Rolle estates, and moved to the grander Bicton House, the former Rolle seat, as his main residence.[14] However this was vacated in the mid 20th century and the family moved back to Heanton Satchville, which today remains the seat of the Barons Clinton, now the Fane-Trefusis family, the largest private landowners in Devon through the Clinton Devon Estates, the lands of which are principally situated near Bicton, in eastern Devon.

Historic estates

The parish of Huish includes the following historic estates:

  • Lovistone (anciently Lovelleston), which according to the Book of Fees (pre-1302), was held by Robert Pollard, directly from the feudal barony of Gloucester.[15] In the 18th century it was the seat of the Saunders family.

Outside links

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Harris, Helen (2004). A Handbook of Devon Parishes. Tiverton: Halsgrove. p. 89. ISBN 1-84114-314-6. 
  2. "Map of Devon Parishes". Devon County Council. http://www.devon.gov.uk/devon_districts_2002_.pdf. Retrieved 20 June 2013. 
  3. Pole, Sir William: 'Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon' (page 380 in the 1791 edition)
  4. Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Devon, 1952; 1989 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09596-8page 497
  5. 5.0 5.1 Hoskins, W. G.: 'A New Survey of England: Devon' (Collins, 1972) ISBN 0-7153-5577-5, page 413
  6. Thorn, Caroline & Frank, (eds.) Domesday Book, (Morris, John, gen.ed.) Vol. 9, Devon, Parts 1 & 2, Phillimore Press, Chichester, 1985, Part 2 (Notes), Chapter 25:2
  7. Ipse Go(scelmus) ten(et) Hiwis ("Gotshelm holds Huish himself")
  8. Thorn, part 1, chap 25:2
  9. Thorn, part 2 (notes), chap 25:2
  10. O. J. Reichel (1914). "The Hundred of Lifton in the time of Testa de Nevil, A.D. 1243". Report & Transactions of the Devonshire Association XLVI: 211. 
  11. Risdon, Tristram (1811). Rees et al. ed. The Chorographical Description or Survey of the County of Devon (updated ed.). Plymouth: Rees and Curtis. pp. 266–7. https://books.google.com/books?id=uIdnAAAAMAAJ. 
  12. Lysons, Daniel: Magna Britannia Volume Six, containing Devonshire (Thomas Cadell, 1822) pages 284–5}}
  13. Lauder, Rosemary (2002). Devon Families. Tiverton: Halsgrove. p. 68. ISBN 1-84114-140-2. 
  14. Lauder
  15. Thorn, part 2 (notes), chap 25:2