Berry Pomeroy is located within South Hams local authority area. Historically it formed part of Haytor Hundred. It falls within Totnes 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 1124 in 1801 1193 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website.In 1641/2 309 adult males signed the Protestation returns.

A parish history file is held in Totnes 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 Berry Pomeroy 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 121/6 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 121NW
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SX829611. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SX86SW, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Explorer 031, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 202. Geological sheet 350 also covers the area.

Illustrations: The image below is of Berry Pomeroy as included in the Library's Etched on Devon's memory website. Other images can be searched for on the local studies catalogue.

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

BERRY POMEROY has been in the possession of only two families since the Norman Conquest-the Pomeroys and the Seymours. The great Norman family of de la Pomerai owned it from 1066 until 1548, making it their principal residence in Devon. It was then sold to Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, whose descendant still owns it. There is no evidence that a castle existed here before the building of the Edwardian castle by one of the Pomeroys in the early 14th century. A survey of 1292 shows only the usual type of .medieval manor house on the site. The 14th century gatehouse, with its massive curtain wall leads into a courtyard in the ruins of the great house in all probability by the Lord protector's son, who lived here from 1575 until his death in 1593. The Seymours lived at Berry for most of the 17th century. Much work of this period is visible in the existing ruins, but the plan of the buildings has yet to be worked out in detail. John Prince, author of The Worthies of Devon (first published in 1701) and vicar of Berry Pomeroy, tells us that the Seymours spent upwards of £20,000 on the house" but never brought it to perfection." They had been strong royalists in the Civil War, and were heavily fined. Nevertheless, they were living here in some state in 1688 when Sir Edward Seymour, the 3rd bart., welcomed William, Prince of Orange, at Berry Castle. His son, another Sir Edward (1633-1708), who became speaker of the House of Commons and had a distinguished career in politics, made Maiden Bradley (Wilts.) his home and Berry was abandoned. When Prince wrote, it was already falling into decay and it is now one of the most romantically beautiful ruins in Devon, almost buried in deep woods on the edge of a cliff.

Berry Pomeroy church (St. Mary) is an attractive building, rebuilt in the time of Sir Richard Pomeroy (d. 1496). He is probably the occupant of the ornate tomb on the S. side of the chancel. The capitals of the S. arcade bear the names of other donors to the rebuilding, the scroll on the W. respond having the inscription Et pro omnibus benefactoribus huius operis orate. There is a fine Seymour monument to Edward, son of the Lord Protector (d. 1593), his son Edward (d. 1613), and the latter's wife, Elizabeth Champernowne.

John Prince was vicar here 1681-1723, and seems to have done a good deal of work on his church. The tower and S. porch look like a 17th century rebuilding, and the old altar rails and altar table (now in the N. aisle) are of his date. So, of course, are the royal arms of William and Mary. The vicarage looks like Prince's handiwork also. Prince was succeeded by Joseph Fox, who was vicar 1723-81, so that Berry had only two parsons in 100 years.

At Longcombe, a farmhouse, William III is said to have held a meeting of his supporters in a house now called Parliament House, before moving on to Berry Castle.