Ashwater is located within Torridge local authority area. Historically it formed part of Black Torrington Hundred. It falls within Holsworthy 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 643 in 1801 758 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website.In 1641/2 167 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 Ashwater 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 74/4 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 74NE
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SX386953. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SX39NE, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Explorer 112, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 190. Geological sheet 323 also covers the area.

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

ASHWATER is an attractive little village grouped around a green. The church (St. Peter) is interesting. It has a splendid Norman font of a Cornish type, with unique ornament, and a N. doorway of the same date. Otherwise the church is mainly 14th and late 15th century in date. Notice the curious S. arcade, which is said to date from a thorough restoration in 1676-7 when the churchwardens' accounts show that nearly £200 was spent on the fabric. Notice, too, the carved roofs. Some of the bench-ends are c. 1500, but most are the modern work of a local craftsman. The canopied tomb in the S. aisle with recumbent effigies is possibly that of Sir Hugh Courtenay (slain at Tewkesbury) 1471) and his wife Margaret. Near by are the royal arms in plaster, dated 1638.