Ilfracombe
Ilfracombe is located within North Devon local authority area. Historically it formed part of Braunton Hundred. It falls within Barnstaple 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 1838 in 1801 8557 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website. In the valuation of 1334 it was assessed at £02/00/00. The lay subsidy of 1524 valued the community at £11/15/00. In 1641/2 322 adult males signed the Protestation returns. It is recorded as a borough from 1249. A turnpike was established in 1843. A market is recorded from 14c.-1935.
A parish history file is held in Ilfracombe 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 Ilfracombe 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 1/13,4/4,5/1 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 1SW,4NE,5NW
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SS516474. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SS54NW, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Explorer 139, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 180. Geological sheet 277 also covers the area.
Illustrations: The image below is of Ilfracombe as included in the Library's Illustration's catalogue. Other images can be searched for on the local studies catalogue.
A fair is known from: 14c.-1822. [It is intended to include the local section from The glove is up! Devon's historic fairs, by Tricia Gerrish, by kind permission of the author].
Extract from Devon by W.G.Hoskins (1954), included by kind permission of the copyright holder:
ILFRACOMBE is a seaside resort on the N. coast of Devon with distinctive and striking cliff scenery, arising from the slates which reach the sea in glistening rocks and reefs. Down to the end of the Napoleonic Wars it was simply a market town and fishing port, with a small overseas trade, but always overshadowed by Barnstaple and Bideford. By the time Lysons wrote it was "an agreeable summer residence" and was increasingly frequented as "a bathing-place." Herrings were, however, still more important than visitors. The population grew more rapidly during the 1830s, and there is a certain amount of attractive building of this period. The Bath House (1836) is a good Greek Revival building. Montpellier Place dates from the 1830s; Hillsborough Terrace is somewhat earlier, perhaps 1810-35. The most rapid growth took place between 1861 and 1891 when the population doubled (3851 to 7692), and the predominant architecture is therefore late Victorian. During the past fifty years Ilfracombe has hardly grown at all, in contrast to the rapid expansion of the S. coast resorts. It is exceedingly hilly, and has a more bracing climate than the S. coast. Moreover, the charms of its scenery are such as appeal to the few rather than the multitude.
There are few ancient buildings in the town. St. Nicholas's chapel on the Lantern Hill, at the entrance to the harbour, was a landmark for mariners and a votive chapel for fishermen and sailors like St. Michael's at Braunton. It is mainly a 15th century building. Since the Reformation it has been used as a lighthouse. The parish church (Holy Trinity) is mostly 14th to 15thcentury, with a Norman tower now half-enclosed within the N. aisle. The font is re-cut Norman, the pulpit Jacobean. Two of the windows have glass by Kempe.
Lee, about 3 m. W., contains a number of interesting cottages and farmhouses, some of 16th and 17th century date. The church (St. Matthew) was built in 1833, but many of the fittings are 17th century. The rock scenery of Lee Bay is very striking. Ii m. farther W. is Bull Point, where the lighthouse was first lit in 1879.
The parish contains a number of fine old farmhouses, best of which is perhaps Damage Barton, once a medieval "mansion" and for long the seat of the Cutcliffes. It is a splendid example of a Devon barton, grouped around a courtyard, in part medieval but mostly 16th and 17th century It has its own mill, as at Westcott Barton in Marwood. Lincombe was a Domesday manor and a medieval mansion, and still retains much old work including oak-mullioned windows. Chambercombe Farm belonged to the Champernownes in the time of Henry II, and was a medieval mansion with a private chapel (licensed 1439). The present farmhouse is mainly 16th and 17th century.
