Beaford is located within Torridge local authority area. Historically it formed part of Shebbear Hundred. It falls within Torrington 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 516 in 1801 428 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website. In 1641/2 82 adult males signed the Protestation returns.

A parish history file is held in Torrington 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 Beaford 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 41/2 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 41NW
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SS553150. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SS51NE,SE, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Explorer 127, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 180. Geological sheet 309 also covers the area.

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

BEAFORD The church (All Saints) is mainly late 15th century, but much restored and dull. The tower was rebuilt 1910; the font is Norman. Upcott, Warham, and Woodleigh (or Woolleigh) were houses of some consequence in this parish. They are worth visiting for their beautiful surroundings. Woolleigh still contains early 17th century work but has been modernised in an unfortunate way. It was a Saxon estate, its name meaning "wolves' clearing." There are remains of a 15th century chapel here.