Parracombe
| Parracombe | |
| Devon | |
|---|---|
 St Petrock's, Parracombe | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SS667449 |
| Location: | 51°11’16"N, 3°54’32"W |
| Data | |
| Local Government | |
Parracombe is a rural village near Lynton, in western Devon. It sits in the Heddon Valley, on Exmoor.
This is a little place, like many tiny villages on Exmoor; the population of the whole parish was recorded at the 2011 census as 293.
About the village
A number Bronze Age barrows exist nearby, along with several other small earthworks throughout the parish.
Beacon Castle and Voley Castle both Iron Age hill forts are found nearby.
History
Rowley Barton in the parish bears a name meaning "rough clearing". It was a manor mentioned in the Domesday Book along with East and West Middleton.
Holwell Castle, at Parracombe was a Norman motte and bailey castle built to guard the junction of the east–west and north–south trade routes,[1] enabling movement of people and goods and the growth of the population.[2] Alternative explanations for its construction suggest it may have been constructed to obtain taxes at the River Heddon bridging place, or to protect and supervise silver mining in the area around Combe Martin.[3]
The castle was 130 feet in diameter and 20 feet high above the bottom of a rock cut ditch which is 9 feet deep.[4] It was built in the late 11th or early 12th century.[1]
Until 1935 the village was served by a halt on the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway which ran close to the centre of the village.
Parish church
Parracombe's church, St Petrock's Church is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Parracombe) |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Holwell Castle". Everything Exmoor. Archived from the original on 2008-03-08. https://web.archive.org/web/20080308010719/http://www.exmoorselfcatering.co.uk/_H/Holwell_Castle.php. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
- ↑ "Ancient Exmoor". Holiday Exmoor. Archived from the original on 2008-03-06. https://web.archive.org/web/20080306203422/http://www.holidayexmoor.co.uk/exmoor-history.htm. Retrieved 2007-11-29.
- ↑ "Holwell Castle". North Devon Archaeological Society. Archived from the original on 2008-01-06. https://web.archive.org/web/20080106130035/http://www.ndas.org.uk/holwellcastel.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
- ↑ "Holwell Castle, Parracombe". The Gatehouse. http://www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/English%20sites/862.html. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
- Hoskins W.G (1954). Devon. Phillimore & Co Ltd. ISBN 1-86077-270-6.