Yarcombe

Yarcombe
Devon
St John the Baptist church, Yarcombe
Location
Grid reference:	ST245082
Location:	50°52’7"N, 3°4’27"W
Data
Population:	500  (2011)
Post town:	Honiton
Postcode:	EX14
Local Government
Parliamentary constituency:	East Devon

Yarcombe is a village in the east of Devon, on the A30 trunk road near Honiton, Devon's eastern gateway town, and Chard across in Somerset. It is sited in the steep rolling meadows and ancient woods of the Yarty Valley on the south edge of the Blackdown Hills in the hundred of Axminster.

The 2011 census recorded just five hundred souls here.

The small village centre has a Norman church, dedicated to St John the Baptist, an old inn with monastical roots, a hotel, a bed and breakfast and a cluster of houses, but there are also many outlying farms and hamlets which make Yarcombe a large parish.

Yarcombe is a working village, and farming and agricultural support services are important sources of employment. There are other small businesses in the community, such as accommodation and catering, building and joinery, motor services, furniture making, and rural crafts. The village has a village hall and an active community life, including traditions such as pig and terrier racing, barrel rolling and metal ball throwing. The East Devon Sheepdog Trials have been held in Yarcombe for several years, in July.

History

Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex, briefly owned the manor in the village, prior to his demise at the Battle of Hastings. During the Hundred Years War, the manor was owned by a French family, one of whom sent money from Yarcombe to the armies of France, to help them fight the English.

In Elizabethan times, ownership of the manor passed to Francis Drake. Today one of his descendants remains squire of Yarcombe.

Outside links

• Information on Yarcombe  from GENUKI
• Listed buildings in Yarcombe