Aveton Gifford is located within South Hams local authority area. Historically it formed part of Ermington Hundred. It falls within Woodleigh 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 746 in 1801 657 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website.In the valuation of 1334 it was assessed at £02/13/04. The lay subsidy of 1524 valued the community at £09/11/01. In 1641/2 150 adult males signed the Protestation returns. It is recorded as a borough from 1384. A market is recorded from 14 cent..

A parish history file is held in Kingsbridge 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 Aveton Gifford 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 132/5,9 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 132NW,SW
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SX694475. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SX64NE, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Outdoor Leisure 20, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 202. Geological sheet 349 also covers the area.
A fair is known from: 14th cent.. [It is intended to include the local section from The glove is up! Devon's historic fairs, by Tricia Gerrish, by kind permission of the author].

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

AVETON GIFFORD (pron. Awton Jifford) formerly had one of the oldest and most interesting churches in Devon (St. Andrew), built in the late 13th century for the most part, a cruciform building with a central tower. It was almost completely destroyed in a "tip-and-run" raid in 1943 and is still (1951) a ruin. The farms of Heathfield and Stadbury were Domesday manors; there are some traces of the former manor house at Heathfield. Harraton, beside the Modbury road, is a good example of an early 17th century farm house. Court Barton, near the ruined church, retains some older features.

Robert Macey, who built numerous churches and theatres in London, including the Adelphi and the Haymarket, was born the son of a mason at Aveton Gifford in 1790.