Bratton Clovelly is located within West Devon local authority area. Historically it formed part of Lifton Hundred. It falls within Okehampton 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 548 in 1801 499 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website.In 1641/2 129 adult males signed the Protestation returns.

A parish history file is held in Okehampton 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 Bratton Clovelly 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 75/11 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 75SE
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SX464919. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SX49SE, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Explorer 112, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 190. Geological sheet 323 also covers the area.

Illustrations: The image below is of Bratton Clovelly 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:

BRATTON CLOVELLY A large remote parish, has one of the noblest churches (St. Mary) in Devon, and one of the least known. It is almost entirely of late 14th century date-the date 1375 is traditionally given for its completion with window tracery all of that date. The exterior is good but not exciting, but the interior view of the nave, looking from the chancel steps to the tower arch, is almost cathedral-like. The lofty arcades have moulded piers of the dove- grey Polyphant stone, so beautiful in colouring that one regrets there is not more of it in Devon (cf. Sampford Courtenay). The tower arch is especially lofty and grand. The contemporary chancel is small and mean for such a nave. There is also a magnificent Norman font, of the same type as that at Ashwater, and the N. wall shows traces of mural paintings.

The parish is large and contains a number of interesting old farmhouses, some with Celtic names such as Maindea and Breazle. Boasley occurs in a Saxon charter of c. 1050, and became a medieval "mansion." Chimsworthy is mainly an Elizabethan farmhouse, which has been turned around so that the original front door is now at the back. It is possible that the core of the house is medieval. Guscott was a Domesday manor. Bratton gets its second name from the Clavilles, who held the manor in the 13th century.