Musbury

Musbury
Devon
Musbury Church
Location
Grid reference:	SY275945
Location:	50°44’44"N, 3°1’37"W
Data
Population:	543
Postcode:	EX13
Dialling code:	01297
Local Government
Council:	East Devon
Parliamentary constituency:	East Devon

Musbury is a village in the east of Devon. It is two miles away from Colyton and two and a half miles away from Axminster, the nearest towns. Musbury is served by the A358 road and lies on the route of the East Devon Way, a forty-mile footpath following the Axe Valley. The village is within the East Devon Area of Natural Beauty.

The village has a post office, primary school, public house, petrol station and church. The parish population at the 2011 census was 543.

History

The village takes its name from the Iron Age hill fort of Musbury Castle on the hill above it, from which there are views of the Axe Valley.

A portrait of the village in 1940 appears in the final chapter of Cecil Day-Lewis's memoir The Buried Day.

Parish church

The parish church, which is dedicated to St. Michael, is a 15th-century structure that was much rebuilt and underwent a Victorian restoration. It contains the Drake Memorial dating from 1611.

Historic estates

• Ash, for many generations the seat of the Drake family. It was the birthplace of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722) whose mother was Elizabeth Drake.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Musbury)