Stowford
Stowford is located within West Devon local authority area. Historically it formed part of Lifton Hundred. It falls within Tavistock 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 235 in 1801 323 in 1901. Figures for other years are available on the local studies website. In 1641/2 65 adult males signed the Protestation returns.
A parish history file is held in Tavistock 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 here is of the Stowford 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 87/6 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 87NW
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SX433869. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SX48NW, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Explorer 112, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 201. Geological sheet 323 also covers the area.
Illustrations: The image below is of Stowford as included in the Library's illustrations collection. This painting by the architect, Edward Ashworth, is dated 1869. 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:
STOWFORD church (St. John) has a most attractive interior, although restored by Sir Gilbert Scott in 1874. When the N. aisle was added. The woodwork was all done at this time, but, being copied from older work by local craftsmen, is excellent. The roofs of the S. aisle, S. chancel aisle, and S. porch are the original, and are notably carved. There are several good 18th century monuments to the Harrises of Hayne, especially one to Christopher Harris, 1718. John Harris of Hayne was Master of the Household to George II and George III. In the S. chancel aisle are the tabard, helmet, and gauntlet of Harris. An Ogham stone-an early Christian monument to one Gunglei-stands at the churchyard gate.
Hayne itself was rebuilt by Wyatville in 1810 in what Baring-Gould dismisses forthwith as "cockney Gothic," but it is good of its kind. It was the seat of the Harrises from Henry VIII's reign until 1864. Milford and Spry town, now farmhouses, were Domesday manors. Shepherds is a good 16th century farmhouse.
