Arlington is located within North Devon local authority area. Historically it formed part of Sherwill Hundred. It falls within Shirwell 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 207 in 1801 217 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website.In 1641/2 404 adult males signed the Protestation returns.

A parish history file is held in Barnstaple 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 Arlington 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 10/1 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 10NW
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SS614405. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SS64SW, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Outdoor Leisure 09, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 180. Geological sheet 293 also covers the area.

Extract from Devon by W.G.Hoskins (1954), included by kind permission of the copyright holder:

ARLINGTON was until recently one of the principal seats of the ubiquitous Chichester family. They acquired the manor by marriage with a Raleigh heiress late in the 14th century Arlington Court, their residence, was handed over to the National Trust in 1947 and Chichester of Arlington is no more. There are fine grounds but the house itself, built 1820-3, is of little architectural interest. It is now open to the public. Amias Chichester (d. 1577), by Jane, daughter of Sir Roger Giffard of Brightley, had nineteen sons and four daughters. Kingsley refers to this noble sight of nineteen sons in Westward Ho! The church (St. James) was rebuilt by Could in 1846, except for the tower. A number of mural tablets from 1622 onwards commemorate the Chichesters. Twitchen was a Domesday manor.