Wembworthy
Wembworthy is located within Mid Devon local authority area. Historically it formed part of Winkleigh Hundred. It falls within Chulmleigh 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 323 in 1801 315 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website. In 1641/2 74 adult males signed the Protestation returns.
A parish history file is held in Crediton 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 Wembworthy 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 42/15 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 42SE
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SS664099. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SS60NE, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Explorer 113, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 191. Geological sheet 309 also covers the area.
Extract from Devon by W.G.Hoskins (1954), included by kind permission of the copyright holder:
WEMBWORTHY village is small, with good cob and thatch building. The church (St. Michael) is decent but of little antiquarian interest, having been almost rebuilt in 1868 and restored again in 1902. The low tower was re- built in 1626. The three original medieval bells remain.
Rashleigh, now a farmhouse, was a Domesday manor and gave its name to the Rashleigh family from the 13th century onwards. Thomas Clotworthy of Clotworthy married the heiress of Rashleigh about 1535 and his descendants occupied Rashleigh until 1682, when their heiress in turn carried it by marriage to the Tremaynes who still owned it in 1935.
The present house was probably built by Thomas Clotworthy, son of the Rashleigh heiress, as the Clotworthy arms appear (above a modern doorway) quartered with Rashleigh and not impaled. These arms are repeated on the plaster and woodwork inside; the house may therefore be dated as c. 1600. The interior, though somewhat altered, contains much work of this date. Especially notable are the plaster ceilings and friezes of the "summer parlour" and of the two upper rooms in the N. wing, which are amongst the finest of their kind in Devon. The house contains also a good deal of contemporary wood work, including the wainscoting and chimney-piece of the small "winter parlour" to the S. of the main entrance, and a staircase with an early 17th century dog-gate.
Eggesford House occupies a commanding site among extensive woods. Built in 1832 by the Hon. Newton Fellowes to replace the old house near Eggesford church, it is already a romantic ruin in a desolate park. Hey- wood Wood, to the N. of the house, contains two interesting earthworks of the mount and bailey type.
