Colyton
Colyton is located within East Devon local authority area. Historically it formed part of Colyton Hundred. It falls within Honiton Vol 2 Deanery for ecclesiastical purposes. The Deaneries are used to arrange the typescript Church Notes of B.F.Cresswell which are held in the Westcountry Studies Library. The population was 1641 in 1801 1982 in 1901 2783 in 1991. Figures for other years are available on the local studies website. In the valuation of 1334 it was assessed at £05/07/00. The lay subsidy of 1524 valued the community at £62/13/03. In 1641/2 575 adult males signed the Protestation returns. It is recorded as a borough from 1238,1208?. The community had a grammar school from 1545. The medieval borough was located in Colyford. A market is recorded from 14c.-1822.
A parish history file is held in Colyton Library. You can look for other material on the community by using the place search on the main local studies database. Further historical information is also available on the Genuki website.
Maps: The image below is of the Colyton area on Donn's one inch to the mile survey of 1765.
On the County Series Ordnance Survey mapping the area is to be found on 1:2,500 sheet 83/3 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 83NE
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SY246940. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SY29SW, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Explorer 029, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 192. Geological sheet 326 also covers the area.
Illustrations: The image below is of Colyton as included in the Library's illustrations catalogue. Other images can be searched for on the local studies catalogue.
A fair is known from: 14c.-1888. An extract from The glove is up! Devon's historic fairs, by Tricia Gerrish, by kind permission of the author.
COLYFORD & COLYTON FAIRS LOCATION: Colyford straddles the A3052, at its junction with A375, near Sidmouth, East Devon. Colyton is its near neighbour.
ORIGINAL CHARTER: 1208 (some sources say 1207). Granted by King John to Thomas Basset. 7 day fair: feast of St Michael & All Angels (29th September)
It would appear that the original charter was granted to the Basset family, who were ancient lords of Colyton (Cullinton). Colyford, however, was a royal borough in 1208, when King John made his grant. The annually elected mayor of Colyford obtained the profits from its fair, and a Portreeve was elected to oversee its conduct. According to King John's charter, the seven day event was to begin on the 'Octave of Saint Michael': around 29th September. Both Lysons and Owen record a fair on the first Wednesday following 11th March for cattle in Colyford, but two fairs in Colyton.
Peter de Brewose received a further fairs charter in c.1342, together with one for the adjacent manor of Whitford (Wytteford) for four days at the feast of St Peter ad Vincula (1st August). Four years later he added another charter, permitting a five day fair at the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (15th August). The manors of Whitford and Colyton later re-united, and the fairs benefitted the latter.
In the 1880s Market Rights and Tolls indicates that Colyford's fair had ceased; one was still held at Colyton. An 1890 directory claims two fairs for Colyton at this time: on the third Tuesday in April and the second Tuesday in October. The March fair in Colyford was noted for 'large cattle', according to Magna Britannia, while Colyton fairs sold cattle and general goods. The Michaelmas fair probably sold geese, which have been re-introduced.
Little is known of the conduct of these agricultural fairs. In the second half of the 19th century those remaining became of less importance. Some business was recorded at Colyton's Autumn fair, but the Spring date was considered of little account. They must have ceased early in the 20th century, but in 1980 the Michaelmas fair was revived as Colyford Goose Fair. Several customs, including Beating the Bounds, were also re-introduced at the same time. On the last Saturday in September a procession, in Medieval dress takes place, to the fair field, next to Springfield. A token number of geese are usually brought in on a wagon and mock-auctioned and 'all the fun of the fair' takes place.
Extract from Devon by W.G.Hoskins (1954), included by kind permission of the copyright holder:
COLYTON is a small and ancient town, grouped around a handsome church. It stands on the river Coly, near its confluence with the Axe, and at the mouth of a beautiful combe which runs back into the greensand outliers of the Blackdown Hills. The whole parish is singularly beautiful, with rolling green hills and deep combes dotted with ancient farmsteads. About a score of these farms have the suffix hayne or hayes in their name, from the medieval English hay, "enclosure." They are nearly all compounded with a medieval personal name which suggests that they were enclosed in severalty in the 13th or early 14th centuries. Some of these farmsteads became "mansions" in the 16th to 18th centuries and are architecturally interesting, e.g. Hooperhayne, Blamphayne, Cookshays, Heathayne. These and others were the homes of small squires, and are very characteristic of their period and status. The combes of Colyton parish, with their network of medieval lanes linking farm to farm, make pleasant walking for several days on end.
Colyton was settled early in the Saxon occupation, probably before 700. It was a compact village of the Teutonic type surrounded by open fields, a royal estate, and important enough to give its name to a l0th century hundred. In 1208 King John granted to Thomas Basset a seven-day fair at the feast of St. Michael. This Thomas soon afterwards set up a borough on a new site, where the old road from Exeter to Dorchester crossed the Coly by a ford; and a town quickly grew here. But Colyford faded out (probably during the 15th century) and when Stukeley saw it about 1724 it was only a remnant of its former size. Though it was never incorporated it somehow contrived to get itself a mayor and insignia. The mayor was still elected in Lysons's day, and had the profits of the large cattle fair. Colyford was the birthplace of Sir Thomas Gates, governor of Virginia 1611-14. There are a number of attractive buildings in the village, including the old Manor House. Colyford bridge is recorded as early as 1254, but the present structure is modern.
Colyton town retains a good deal of interesting building. The vicarage was built in 1529 by Dr. Thomas Brerewood, chancellor to Bishop Veysey, and is referred to by Leland as "a fair House." The Great House, on the Colyford road, was built by John Yonge, an eminent merchant' of the town temp. Elizabeth. It was the principal residence of the Yonge family, who came into Devon from Berkshire c. 1500, and were baronets from 1661 to 1810. Walter Yonge (1579-1649), the author of the well-known diary for the years 1604-28 (published by the Camden Society, in 1848) was the son of the Elizabethan merchant. He lived for many years at the Great House, and wrote much of his diary here. Elsewhere in the town are some good 16th and 17th century houses.
The parish church (St. Andrew) is a large and handsome building, chiefly of 15th early 16th century date but with some 13th century work in the chancel and tower. The upper part of the tower, with its octagonal lantern, is late 15th century. The aisles were rebuilt in 1765 and 1816: hence the curious style of the arcades. The tombs and monuments of the church are interesting. Against the N. wall is a Courtenay tomb, with effigy. The heraldry and the costume indicate that the tomb is that of Margaret, daughter of John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset, who married Thomas Courtenay, 5th Earl of Devon, c. 1431. The shields of arms are those of Courtenay and Beaufort.
On the N. side is the Yonge chapel, where members of this family were buried from 1584 to 1812. There is a Jacobean stone screen to this chapel. On the S. side of the chancel is the Pole chapel, containing some splendid Pole monuments, particularly that of Sir John Pole (1658) and Elizabeth his wife. It has been suggested that the monument is the work of Gerard Johnson of Southwark. Sir William Pole (d. 1635), the great Devonshire antiquary, whose Collections have been quarried by generations of local historians and genealogists, lies buried in this chapel but without a memorial. The stone parclose screen to the chapel was erected c. 1530 by Thomas Brerewood, who held the living 1524-44. On it appear the initials T. B. with the briar bush, a pun upon the name Brerewood. There are other monuments in the church, that to William Westover (d. 1614) being especially noteworthy. The parish registers of Colyton are perfectly preserved from 1538 onwards, and have been printed.
Colcombe Castle, 1 m. N. of Colyton, was one of the seats of the Courtenays, to whom the manor came in the 13th century A house was first built here by Hugh Courtenay, Earl of Devon, temp. Edward I, but Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter, rebuilt it on a magnificent scale. After his attainder in 1539, the house fell into ruin. William Pole, father of the antiquary, bought it temp. Elizabeth, and settled it on his son who largely rebuilt it and made it his residence. Prince Maurice made Colcombe his headquarters in 1644, and from here attacked Stedcombe, Sir Walter ErIe's new house, which he had garrisoned for parliament. The Poles later made their principal residence at Shute (q.v.), and Colcombe sank to the level of a farmhouse. The remains are, however, exceedingly interesting. Much work of early 16th century date remains, including a splendid kitchen with a fireplace nearly 20 ft. across, and a private room above. Some traces of pre-16th century work are visible, but the extensive additions by Sir William Pole in the early 17th century are more conspicuous.
Of the farms of the parish not already mentioned, Farwood Barton and Gatcombe were Domesday manors, and Yardbury was the mansion of the West- overs and then of the Drakes.
Colyton is a prosperous little town, founded securely upon a fertile countryside. It has sawmills, corn-mills, tanneries, and a small iron foundry.
