X-Nico

45 unusual facts about Devon


Bishop of Truro

It was created by the division of the Diocese of Exeter in 1876 approximately along the Devon-Cornwall border (a few parishes of Devon west of the Tamar were included in the new diocese).

British M-class submarine

She was captained during her sea trials by experienced submariner Commander Max Horton after his return from the Baltic, and was later lost with all hands while on exercise in the English Channel near Start Point in Devon after a collision with a Swedish collier, SS Vidar, on 12 November 1925.

Broadwoodwidger Rural District

The county boundary was realigned when the district was abolished in 1966, with two parishes, Northcott and Werrington being transferred to Cornwall with the remaining four parishes remaining in Devon and passing to the Holsworthy Rural District.

Buckfastleigh, Totnes and South Devon Railway

The Buckfastleigh, Totnes and South Devon Railway built the broad gauge railway line from Totnes to Buckfastleigh and Ashburton in Devon, England.

Buddleja davidii 'Castle School'

Buddleja davidii 'Castle School' is a recent introduction, cloned from a seedling discovered growing in the wall of the eponymous Castle School in Tiverton, Devon, England, by nurseryman Martin Hugh-Jones, and introduced to commerce in 2004.

Cookbury

The parish, which lies about five miles east of the town of Holsworthy, is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Thornbury, Bradford, Ashwater, Hollacombe, and Holsworthy Hamlets.

Crediton Parish Church

Sully was lord of the manor of Iddesleigh, but was said by Westcote to have had his seat at "Rookesford", i.e. Ruxford, in the parish of Sandford about 1/2 mile north-west of Crediton.

A vicar of Crediton was appointed together with two chaplains, one of which ministered to Sandford (the adjoining parish).

Custos Rotulorum of Devon

This is a list of people who have served as Custos Rotulorum of Devon.

Darby Lux I

William resided at his estate “Ippleden”, located in Devonshire, England.

Edward Pellew, 4th Viscount Exmouth

He was a Deputy Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace for Devon, and Captain of the 5th (Hay Tor) Volunteer Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment.

Elizabeth Dickens

Concerned about his father's financial problems, in 1839 Charles Dickens rented a cottage for his parents far from London, and, as he thought, far from temptation, at Alphington in Devon.

Fabius, 1944

#Fabius 1 - elements of the 1st Infantry Division and 29th Infantry Division (United States) practiced amphibious landing at Slapton Sands.

Formica cunicularia

:In the New Forest it occurs in earth-mounds, at Seaton under stones, in the Landslip, Isle of Wight, in the side of the cliff, and at Fairlight I found it in the side of the cliff and in earth-mounds in the undercliff - one of the nests being traced by tracking a worker which was carrying home a fly in its jaws.

Forts in Cornwall

Many Napoleonic forts were built during the Napoleonic War in South East Cornwall to protect Plymouth Sound and Plymouth's docks in Devonport, Devon from attack: some are still in use today by the Ministry of Defence.

Fosse Way

There are further alignments on the A358 at Ball's Farm and Musbury south of Axminster, which imply a Roman road did continue along the River Axe toward Axmouth and Seaton.

Francis Foster Barham

After a preliminary training in the grammar school of Penzance, he studied under one of his brothers near Epping Forest, and was then articled for five years (1826–31) to a solicitor at Devonport.

Fremington Army Camp

Fremington Army Camp was a military camp in the village of Fremington, Devon, England, which was used as a base to train the United States Army Air Corps.

Hardy Monument

From the top of the monument at a height of 850 feet above sea level it is possible to see on a clear day: Start Point, Devon, St. Catherine's Point on the Isle of Wight both of which are 90 kilometres distant and to the North can be seen Pen Hill in the Mendip Hills which is 65 kilometres away.

Henry Duke, 1st Baron Merrivale

Duke was the second son of William Edward Duke, a granite merchant of Merrivale, Devon, and his wife Elizabeth Ann (née Lord).

HMS Appledore

One ship and two shore establishments of the British Royal Navy have been named HMS Appledore, after the village in Devon.

James Polkinghorne

This match, the purse for which was £200 a side for the best of three back falls, took place at Tamar Green, Morice Town, near Devonport, on 23 October 1826, in the presence of upwards of 12,000 spectators.

Polkinghorne's greatest match was on 23 October 1826 against Abraham Cann of Colebrooke who was the champion of Devon.

Jan Visman

These laboratories were located in Calgary until 1955 when they moved to Edmonton and are still operating alongside the Alberta Research Council at the Coal Research Centre in Devon, Alberta.

John Anstey

Anstey was born in Devonshire, England in 1856, and was raised on his father's farm in Tiverton.

John Fancy

Following the death of his wife in 1983 he retired to Slapton, Devon to be near his daughter.

John Morphett

Morphett was born in London, the second son of Nathaniel Morphett, a solicitor, and his wife Mary, née Gliddon, of Cummins, Ide, Devon, and was educated at Plymouth and Highgate Grammar Schools.

Lowland Mounted Brigade

In late September 1915, the brigade (just two regiments strong, Ayrshire Yeomanry and Lanarkshire Yeomanry) left Fife for Devonport.

Margaret Anna Cusack

When she was a teenager, her parents separated and she went to live in Exeter with her grand-aunt, then in Devon where she joined the evangelical Christian Plymouth Brethren.

Maris Wigeon

Until recently (2008/9) the only commercial seed distributor for Maris Widgeon, was Pickards Seeds, of Burrington, Devon.

Mark Blaug

Mark Blaug FBA (3 April 1927, The Hague, Netherlands – 18 November 2011, Dartmouth, United Kingdom), was a British economist (naturalised in 1982), who has covered a broad range of topics over his long career.

Michael Linning Melville

Michael Linning Melville and his wife Elizabeth both died in 1876 and are buried in the old churchyard at Dartington Hall in South Devonshire, England.

Microcon

Microcon is an annual science fiction and fantasy convention, held annually at the University of Exeter in Exeter, Devon, England since 1982, usually over the first weekend in March.

Newcourt railway station, Exeter

The station could form part of a Metro-style rail network of short stops to increase connectivity to and from commuter towns such as Exmouth and Cullompton, with new stations at Marsh Barton, Monkerton and Cranbrook.

River Cottage

In September 2006, the show would leave those buildings, then known as River Cottage H.Q., to move on to the Park Farm location near to Uplyme in Devon.

Seán Rafferty

He married Peggy Laing in 1947 and the next year moved with her to Iddesleigh, Devon, where he was landlord of the "Duke of York" public house.

South West Water

South West Water provides drinking water and waste water services throughout Cornwall and Devon and in small areas of Dorset and Somerset.

St Thomas, Exeter

The other part, about a mile to the west of the main body of the parish, contained the hamlet of Oldridge and was transferred to the parish of Whitestone in 1884.

Thomas George Tucker

Tucker died in Stope Cove, Devon, England, on 24 January 1946, survived by the two daughters and son of his first marriage (to Annie Mary Muckalt who died in 1933).

Thomas Sewell Robins

Born in Devonport, Devon, he was an early member of the New Water-Colour Society and the Institute of Painters in Water-Colours.

Uncle Tom Cobley

Cobley disapproved of his nephew and kept him out of his will (signed at Pascoe house, Colebrooke).

Victor Daley

He was born at the Navan, County Armagh, Ireland, and was educated at the Christian Brothers at Devonport in England.

Weare Giffard

"In memory of Hugh Fortescue, Esquire, and of Elizabeth his wife, daughter of John Chichester Esquire and also of John Fortescue, the son of them, Esquire, and of Mary his wife, daughter of Humphrey Speccot of Thornbury, Esquire.

William Pullen

Pullen was born in Devonport, Devon, the son of Royal Navy Lieutenant William Pullen and Amelia Mary Haswell.

Woodacott

Woodacott is sometimes regarded as part of the nearby village of Thornbury.


Anna Louisa Geertruida Bosboom-Toussaint

Her first romance, Almagro, appeared in 1837, followed by De graaf van Devonshire ("The Earl of Devonshire") in 1838; De Engelschen te Rome ("The English at Rome") in 1840, and Het Huis Lauernesse ("The House of Lauernesse") in 1841, an episode of the Reformation that has been translated into many European languages.

Anthony Kingston

After the death of Sir William Courtenay of Powderham in 1535, Kingston married his widow, Mary, daughter of Sir John Gainsford, and left Gloucestershire to reside at Chudleigh, Devon, which, with Honiton, belonged to his wife's jointure.

Baler

On 3 September 2010, on the A381 in Halwell near Totnes, Devon, UK an early member of British rock group ELO Mike Edwards was killed when his van was crushed by a round bale.

Baron Clinton

The present family seat in 2012 is Heanton Satchville, Huish, near Merton, Devon, which was built in 1782 as "Innis House" by Sir James Innis, Duke of Roxburgh, and was purchased by the 18th Baron Clinton in about 1805, renamed Heanton Satchville, which burned down in 1935 and was rebuilt.

Berry Castle

Berry Castle, Weare Giffard, an Iron Age hill fort near Weare Gifford, Devon, United Kingdom

Bertie Bolton

Bolton's final game for Dorset came in 1912 against Devon.

Brown podzolic

Thus they are common in Ireland, Scotland, Wales (where they occupy about 20% of the country) and western England, especially Devon, Cornwall and the Lake District.

Buckfast

Buckfast is a small village near to Buckfastleigh in Devon, England

Burgage

In South Zeal in Devon burgage plots were known as "borough acres".

Carew Reynell

Reynell was the son of Richard Reynell (d.1585) of East Ogwell, Devon, and his wife Agnes Southcote, daughter of John Southcote of Bovey Tracey, Devon.

Charles Carew

Carew was the son of Reverend Robert Baker Carew, Rector of Bickleigh, Devon, grandson of Sir Thomas Carew, 6th Baronet (see Carew baronets).

Coplestone Bampfylde

Sir Coplestone Bampfylde, 3rd Baronet (c. 1689–1787), his grandson, British MP for Exeter and Devon 1713–1727

Cornish cuisine

Cornwall has influenced and been influenced by other British cuisine, as well as having similarities with the cuisine of its neighbour, Devon.

David A. Tall

Born in Plympton, he was a right-handed batsman and right-arm medium-pace bowler who played for Devon.

Devon Labour Briefing

In the UK miners' strike (1984-1985), Devon Labour Briefing twinned itself with the Maerdy Colliery in South Wales, and collected money and food.

Devon Railway Centre

The Devon Railway Centre is in the village of Bickleigh in Mid Devon, England, at the former Cadeleigh railway station on the closed Great Western Railway branch from Exeter to Dulverton, also known as the Exe Valley Railway.

Devon Sharks

Just 10 days later again in Tiverton, Sharks lost the RLC South West Grand Final to East Devon Eagles 37-32.

DVD Monthly

DVD Monthly was founded in April 1999 as the first magazine of Dave Perry's Predator Publishing in Exeter, Devon, UK.

Exercise Tiger

Exercise Tiger was relocated from Slapton to Bereton on the Devon coast and used as the background to Kate Ellis's book, The Armada Boy, first published in 1999.

Frederick Arthur Challinor

Frederick Arthur Challinor was born on 12 November 1866 at Longton, Staffordshire and died on 10 June 1952 at Paignton, Devon.

Frederick Thrupp

Thrupp executed the monument to Lady Coleridge at Ottery St. Mary in Devon; the reredos representing the Last Supper in St. Clement's, York; and the monument to Hugh Nicholas Pearson in Sonning Church, Berkshire, in 1883.

Gillian Morgan

At the turn of the century Morgan was Chief Executive of the North & East Devon Health AUthority, based in Exeter where her husband was teacher at Exeter School.

Henry Garrett Newland

In the autumn of 1855 he moved to the vicarage of St Marychurch with Coffinswell, near Torquay in Devon, where Henry Phillpotts the bishop of Exeter appointed him his domestic chaplain.

Hort baronets

The current Baronet is Sir Andrew Edwin Fenton Hort, of East Prawle, Devon.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Born in London, UK, to gardener and writer, Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall, and father, Robert Fearnley-Whittingstall, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall was brought up in Devon, UK.

John Carpenter Garnier

Carpenter Garnier, born Carpenter, was the son of John Carpenter of Mount Tavy, Tavistock, Devon and his wife Lucy Garnier, daughter of Rev. William Garnier.

John Creemer Clarke

Clarke was the son of Robert Clarke of St Giles in the Wood, Devon and his wife Graciana Creemer, daughter of John Creemer of Exbourne Devon.

Kings of Devon

The box office revenues from Kings of Devon went to raise money for Shishu Bikash Kendra, a school for underprivileged children in the Dhanmondi district of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Liber Exoniensis

It contains a variety of administrative materials concerning the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire.

Maiden Castle, Dorset

This was a characteristic of Vespasian's campaign in the region; there was military occupation at Cadbury Castle in Somerset, Hembury in Devon, and Hodd Hill in Dorset.

Marble Hill House

but more commonly thereafter, and provided a standard model for the English villas built throughout the Thames Valley and further afield, for example New Place, King's Nympton, Devon, built between 1746–9 to the design of Francis Cartwright of Blandford in Dorset.

Mary Gillham

She lectured in the universities of Exeter (Devon), Massey (New Zealand), Melbourne (Australia), Kano (Nigeria), and worked in the Adult Education Department at University College Cardiff from 1961 until her retirement in 1988.

Mike Zito

Zito met Devon Allman while working together at the Guitar Center in St. Louis.

Peril at End House

Transposed from Devon to Cornwall, the Majestic Hotel of the book is based on the Imperial Hotel in Torquay.

Robert de Brantingham

The action was a plea of covenant concerning Drewsteignton, Devon, for which de Brantingham and his fellow plaintiffs paid 100 marks, and in return were granted the manor of Drewsteignton.

Robert Kekewich

Kekewich was the second son of Trehawke Kekewich, of Peamore House, near Exeter, Devon, and the grandson of Samuel Trehawke Kekewich.

Shirwell

The parish was successively the seat of two of the leading families of North Devon, the Beaumonts (to the end of the 15th century) and their heirs the Chichesters of Raleigh, Pilton, both of which families lived on the estate of Youlston within the Manor of Shirwell.

Sir John Northcote, 1st Baronet

Northcote was the eldest surviving son of John Northcote (1570-1632) of Hayne, Newton St Cyres, near Crediton, Devon, (whose splendid monument he erected in Newton St Cyres Church) by his second wife Susanna Pollard, daughter of Sir Hugh II Pollard of King's Nympton.

St Clement's Day

Ironworkers gather from all over the Britain to celebrate St Clement’s Day at Finch Foundry near Okehampton in Devon.

Stannary

Plympton became the fourth Devon stannary town in 1328 after a powerful lobby persuaded the Sheriff of Devon that it was nearer the sea and therefore had better access for merchants.

Tønder

The Scouts of Tønder are twinned with Hemyock, in Devon, England, and make exchange trips between the countries every few years.

Trwyn Du Lighthouse

One of the many Lighthouse keepers was Joseph Steer, born in 1831 at Bovey Tracey, Devon.

Warren Patmore

Patmore was an instant success with Management gaining two promotions in three seasons with Devon & Exeter Football League side Morchard Bishop.

Wassailing

The West Country is the most famous and largest cider producing region of the country and some of the most important wassails are held annually in Carhampton and Dunster (Somerset) and Whimple (Devon), both on 17 January (old Twelfth Night).