Seaton
Seaton 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 1497 in 1801 2443 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website. The lay subsidy of 1524 valued the community at £08/15/09.
A parish history file is held in Seaton 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 Seaton 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 83/11 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 83SE
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SY245905. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SY28NW,SY29SW+, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Explorer 029, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 193. Geological sheet 326 also covers the area.
Illustrations: The image below is of Seaton as included in the Library's illustrations collection . Other images can be searched for on the local studies catalogue.
Extract from Devon by W.G.Hoskins (1954), included by kind permission of the copyright holder:
SEATON is a small seaside town on the W. side of the mouth of the Axe. The old village was about 1.5m. inland, near the parish church. The latter (St. Gregory) is a much restored and rather shapeless building. It was originally a cruciform building of early 14th century date. Later additions and alterations, including a fine W. tower (15th century), have produced the present perplexing plan. The restoration of 1866 (at which the old screen disappeared) has left us nothing but poor Victorian furnishings.
Seaton developed late among the seaside resorts of Devon. In the 1850s it had barely 800 people, living chiefly by fishing. A branch line of the L.& S. W. R. reached Seaton in 1868 and stimulated its growth, but at the end of the century it still had only 1,300 people. It is mostly a town of commonplace late Victorian and Edwardian building, completely different in architectural character and social history from Sidmouth, just along the coast. The cliff scenery of Seaton is striking, especially its varied colouring.
