Chittlehampton is located within North Devon local authority area. Historically it formed part of South Molton Hundred. It falls within South Molton 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 1406 in 1801 1342 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website. In 1641/2 342 adult males signed the Protestation returns.

A parish history file is held in South Molton 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 Chittlehampton 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 21/6 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 21NW
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SS636255. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SS62NW, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Explorer 127, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 180. Geological sheet 293 also covers the area.

Illustrations: The image below is of Chittlehampton 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:

CHITLEHAMPTON is a large compact village, originally built around an open square with the church on one side. It was one of the early villages in the Saxon occupation, c. 700 in date. The church is one of the finest in N. Devon. It has a unique dedication, to the Celtic saint Urith or Hieritha, who was born at East Stowford (about 1 m. N. in Swimbridge parish) and was martyred by the villagers of Chittlehampton who cut her to pieces with their scythes. St. Urith's well still lies at the E. end of the village, now called by the corrupt name of Taddy Well or St. Teara's Well. The ancient wall and building that stood above and around it have been removed, the well has been covered in, and a common pump fixed: but this prosaic object takes us back to the early days of Christianity in Devon, when an obscure Celtic maiden named Urith was slain by some heathen Saxons, probably early in the 8th century" She was buried near the site of her martyrdom, and a beautiful church was later raised above her. The exact burial place was probably in the small chapel on the N. side of the sanctuary, which originally contained an image of the saint and was the scene of a pilgrimage on her day (8 July) until 1539. The small chapel has now been made into a passage leading to a vestry. It is floored by a stone with the inscription "Orate pro anima Joan Cobley," a medieval slab which there is some reason to believe may have been placed over St. Urith's relics. The removal of her image did not end her cult in Devon, for the Christian name of Urith or Hieritha was repeatedly bestowed on daughters in gentle and simple families for long afterwards, and is indeed still used in the Trevelyan and Trefusis families.

The church is entirely a rebuilding of (c. 147O to c. 1520), the magnificent W. tower being the last part to be completed (plate I). It is unquestionably the finest church tower in Devon, combining the strength of Devon towers with the grace of Somerset. The medieval pulpit (c. 1500) survives, the figure on the N. side being that of St. Urith holding the palm branch of martyrdom and the foundation stone of the church. In the N. transept is a monument to John Giffard of Brightley with figures of his son Arthur and his grandson John (1602-66), a royalist colonel.

Brightley Barton, 21 m. SW. of the village, occupies a medieval moated site. The park has long been given over to tillage, and the 16th century house has been considerably pulled about.

Hudscott, SE. of the village, was one of the lesser seats of the Rolles. It was rebuilt in 1677 but is unexciting. Hawk- ridge Barton was a seat of a branch of the Aclands from the mid-14th century until the 17th century. Externally there is nothing remarkable except a decaying avenue of ancient walnuts: so often the first indication of a 16th or 17th century "mansion." The house may have been rebuilt c. 1615 as it contains a plaster coat-of-arms of Acland impaling Tre- mayne: Baldwin Acland married Elizabeth, da. of Tremayne of Collacombe, in 1615. Among the other farmsteads of the parish, Whitestone, South Bray, and North and South Newton, were all Domesday manors. There is a good medieval stone cross at Brightley Cross, possibly erected as a guide post in connection with the widespread pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Urith.