Brampford Speke is located within East Devon local authority area. Historically it formed part of Wonford Hundred. It falls within Cadbury 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 273 in 1801 374 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website.In 1641/2 56 adult males signed the Protestation returns.

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 Brampford Speke 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 68/6,10 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 68NW,SW
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SX926985. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SX99NW, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Explorer 114, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 192. Geological sheet 325 also covers the area.

Illustrations: The image below is of Brampford Speke 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:

BRAMPFORD SPEKE is an attractive village, situated on a low cliff of red sandstone overhanging the Exe. George Gissing walked here from Exeter in February 1891 and wrote: "I have discovered a village called Brampford Speke on the Exe, which I seriously think is the most perfect I ever saw. One imagines that some lord of the manor must exert himself to keep it in a picturesque state." There is much excellent domestic building of cob and thatch, ranging in date from the late 16th century to the early 19th; but the church (St. Peter), although beautifully sited above the river, is disappointing on closer inspection. Except for the W. tower, it was entirely rebuilt in 1852-3 and is dull. This is the scene of the great struggle in 1847-51 between the bishop of Exeter (the formidable Phillpotts) and the vicar, the Rev. G. C. Gorham, over the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, in which the bishop was finally beaten. The vicar was instituted and his first act was to rebuild the old church, Bishop Phillpotts assisting with some of his own money.