Ashbury is located within West Devon local authority area. Historically it formed part of Black Torrington Hundred. It falls within Okehampton 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 41 in 1801 83 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website.In 1641/2 17 adult males signed the Protestation returns.

A parish history file is held in Okehampton 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 Ashbury 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 64/9 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 64SW
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SX508979. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SX59NW, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Explorer 113, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 191. Geological sheet 324 also covers the area.

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

ASHBURY is little more than a church in a park. The church (St. Mary) was rebuilt in 1872-3 and is wholly uninteresting. Wadland Barton is a large and picturesque farmstead, built in 1668 (date in kitchen) on an ancient site which is first mentioned in 1244.