Kenton
Kenton is located within Teignbridge local authority area. Historically it formed part of Exminster Hundred. It falls within Kenn 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 1639 in 1801 1723 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website. In the valuation of 1334 it was assessed at £09/03/04. The lay subsidy of 1524 valued the community at £29/01/01. In 1641/2 260 adult males signed the Protestation returns. It is recorded as a borough from 1217. A market is recorded from 14 cent..
A parish history file is held in Dawlish 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 Kenton 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 92/15,16 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 92SE
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SX960833. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SX98SE, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Explorer 031, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 192. Geological sheet 339 also covers the area.
Illustrations: The image below is of Kenton as included in the Library's illustrations collection. Other images can be searched for on the local studies catalogue.
A fair is known from: 14 cent.. An extract from The glove is up! Devon's historic fairs, by Tricia Gerrish,is reproduced by kind permission of the author
KENTON LOCATION:Off A379 near Exeter
ORIGINAL CHARTER:Date unknown, but given ‘by Henry III to men of Kenton for All Saints Day (1st November).
It is understood that a charter was granted in the time of Henry III to the men of Kenton, for a fair at the Feast of All Saints on 1st November. A Shrove Tuesday fair: 'of little importance' is listed in the 1890 directory.
Kenton, Kenn and Kennford held a combined event in 1996, incorporating the old charter fairs. This was celebrated in August; jousting - on mountain bikes, using balloons as weapons and a banquet in medieval costume in Church Field were prime attractions. The same event continues in the 21st century. * see KENN etc.
Extract from Devon by W.G.Hoskins (1954), included by kind permission of the copyright holder:
KENTON is a large and pleasant village in the luxuriant New Red Sandstone country between the Exe estuary and the Haldon Hills. The church (All Saints), built of red sand- stone, is a fine example of the fully- aisled Devonshire plan, entirely of I 5th century date, with a handsome W. tower showing Somerset influence. The S. porch is singularly beautiful. Internally, the effect is one of great richness. The white Beer stone arcades have capitals carved with foliage of the local type and with a variety of figure-sculpture. The rood-screen (late 15th century) is one of the finest in Devon. Like Kentisbeare and Dartmouth, it seems to be the prototype of many others, of massive and stately proportions and retaining much ancient colour and gilding. The lower panels have a remark- able series of paintings, chiefly of saints and apostles. The pulpit is a careful reconstruction by Herbert Read of the medieval one destroyed by the "restorer" (Ashworth of Exeter) in 1866. The reredos is a fine piece of work by Kempe. There are monuments to Sir Nicholas Martin of Oxton (1653), Elizabeth Martin (1695), and John Rashleigh of Menabilly (1651).
Mowlish Farm is recorded in Domesday Book, Cofford in a charter dated 1044. Oxton is an ancient estate, probably dating from the 12th century, one of the many attractive small estates in the neighbourhood of Exeter which successful city merchants liked to buy. It belonged at different times to the Exeter merchant-families of Wilford, Hurst, and Martin, passing eventually to the Rev. John Swete who built the present house about 1789, and laid out the beautiful grounds. The house is now a girls' school.
Starcross is a large village in the parish, on the estuary of the Exe and the ancient landing-place for Kenton. There was an inn here (the Courtenay Anns) and "several neat buildings" by the time Polwhele wrote (1793), and the opening of the South Devon Railway in 1846 brought more people. Starcross never fulfilled expectations as a watering-place, being overshadowed by Dawlish, but it still wears, along the river front, a placid air of early Victorian days.
