Branscombe is located within East Devon local authority area. Historically it formed part of Colyton Hundred. It falls within Ottery 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 603 in 1801 627 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website.The lay subsidy of 1524 valued the community at £13/08/03.

A parish history file is held in Sidmouth 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 Branscombe 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 83/13 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 83SW
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SY196885. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SY18NE,SY28NW, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Explorer 030, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 192. Geological sheet 326 also covers the area.

Illustrations: The image below is of Branscombe 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:

BRANSCOMBE is one of the most attractive places on the south coast of Devon "Brannoc's combe," in a break in the high cliff wall. Eastwards the chalk cliffs rise to over 400 ft.; westwards to over 500 ft. Hooken Cliff, between Branscombe and Beer Head, is the first of the great landslips of Devon and Dorset. In one night of March 1790 nearly ten acres of land dropped 200-260 ft. vertically and moved 200 yds. seawards, breaking up into columns and pinnacles. On Berry Cliff, W. of Branscombe, is a large earthwork of unknown age, apparently of rectangular plan, (See V.C.H. Devon 575, for a brief description) and to the W. a number of barrows.

There is no village of Branscombe. Hamlets and houses are planted inconsequently down the beautiful little combe almost to the very beach. Great Seaside Farm, the last of the chain, is a good specimen of an Elizabethan farmhouse. Dotted about the parish are other picturesque and interesting houses the homes of medieval franklins and Tudor and Stuart gentry. Hole (recorded in 1249) was the home of the Holcombes for seven generations until the 17th century, when it passed to the Bartletts. The present house is late 16th century in date. Edge Barton, alone on a steep hillside, has some considerable traces of medieval work. Until the 14th century it was the home of the Brans- combes, a distinguished family who produced three sheriffs of the county and one of Exeter's greatest bishops-Walter Bronescombe, bishop 1258-80. Edge passed from the Branscombes to another notable family, the Wadhams. Sir John Wadham, the judge, acquired it towards the end of Edward III's reign, and his descendants dwelt there until Nicholas Wadham (founder of Wadham College) died without issue. Lower House, N. of the vicarage, has been the home since the 16th century of the Fords, who still possess it. Church Living is a medieval house opposite the church. Barnells, not far away, was built by Capt. Ewell, Nelson's captain of Marines on the Victory at Trafalgar. It was known for some time as Trafalgar House.

The parish church is dedicated to St. Winifred, an obscure North Welsh saint who died c. 650. Such a rare dedication suggests that a church has existed here almost since that time. There is, indeed, pre-Conquest work to be seen on the inner side of the lower part of the tower walls, though it is possibly not earlier than the 11th century The church, besides being one of the most "atmospheric" churches in Devon, is of the highest interest, for it exhibits a process of continuous development from the 11th century to the 16th. Its architectural history is dealt with admirably in the local guide, one of the best of its kind, and is too complicated to be summarised in a few lines here, beyond saying that the massive central tower and part of the nave are Norman; the transepts and W. half of the nave 13th century; and the chancel early 14th. Small changes were made in the 15th and16th centuries. The woodwork of the church is highly interesting: an Elizabethan gallery, late 17th century altar rails enclosing the altar on four sides, and a three-decker pulpit. There are numerous memorials to the Wadhams, Holcombes, and other local families, both inside the church and in the churchyard. One could spend a good week in and around Branscombe. W. H. Hudson and H. J. Massingham have both written lovingly about it.