Shebbear
Shebbear is located within Torridge local authority area. Historically it formed part of Shebbear Hundred. It falls within Torrington 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 744 in 1801 840 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website. In 1641/2 142 adult males signed the Protestation returns.
A parish history file is held in Holsworthy 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 Shebbear 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 51/2 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 51NW
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SS439093. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SS40NW, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Explorer 126, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 190. Geological sheet 307 also covers the area.
Extract from Devon by W.G.Hoskins (1954), included by kind permission of the copyright holder:
SHEBBEAR is a nondescript collection of houses around a large square, the most interesting being the 17th century New Inn. The church (St. Michael) contains some Norman work, including a good S. doorway, c. 1180. The S. aisle is said by Risdon to have been built by the lady (of Ladford in this parish) whose recumbent effigy is in the S. wall. The nave and chancel are early 14th century in date, but the window tracery has been restored. An evangelical curate ripped out the chancel screen in 1812, but the parish got rid of him in turn. There is now a good modern screen. The pulpit and reading-desk are Jacobean, the grotesque figures on the former being worth close examination.
Ladford, now a farmhouse, was formerly a mansion. Lovacott is recorded in Domesday. South Furze, Badworthy, Binworthy, and Worden all existed by 1167. At Allacott was a private chapel (St. Stephen), licensed by the bishop in 1409. The house, now a farmhouse, was then described as a "mansion." Durpley Castle, 1 m. N. of Ladford, is a small Norman castle site with a motte and bailey surrounded by a ditch, covering about an acre.
