Holbeton is located within South Hams local authority area. Historically it formed part of Ermington Hundred. It falls within Plympton 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 869 in 1801 850 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website. In 1641/2 254 adult males signed the Protestation returns.

A parish history file is held in Ivybridge 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 Holbeton 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 131/2 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 131NW
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SX614502. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SX65SW, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Outdoor Leisure 20, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 202. Geological sheet 349 also covers the area.

Illustrations: The image below is of Holbeton 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:

HOLBETON is a considerable village set back a little from the beautiful wooded shores of the Erme estuary, amid quite unspoiled country. The coastal scenery of the parish is also most attractive. The banks of the Erme are lined with country houses, of which the most notable is Flete, in a large park, formerly the seat of Lord Mildmay and now a Plymouth hospital. Flete owes its present character as a house to Norman Shaw who remodelled it extensively from 1878 onwards. He built the great tower on the N. front, rebuilt the NW. wing, and drastically altered the interior to put in "over-rich Tudor." The house had already been drastically remodelled in the Gothic style in 1835, and the front is all of this date.

Flete was a Saxon estate (it is recorded in Domesday). Other Saxon estates in the parish-all recorded in Domesday-were Battisborough, Lamb-side, and Membland.

Mothecombe, a beautiful site at the mouth of the river, is first referred to in the early 13th century. The present house was built about 1710. Membland was rebuilt in the 1780s. Pamflete is delightfully situated near the wooded shores of the Erme. The house has traces of old work.

The church (All Saints) has a dignified and spacious interior, with lofty granite arcades (early 16th century), and shallow N. and S. transepts. The tower and spire are probably early 14th century. The church contains much excellent modern woodwork, notably the screens, benches and stalls. The modern chancel roof should also be noted. In the Hele chapel is a striking monument with 22 figures arranged in four steps or tiers, representing three generations of the Heles. The effigy in armour is that of Sir Thomas Hele of Flete (d. 1670). Above is his father, Thomas Hele (d. 1624) and family, and above him again Sir Thomas's grandfather, Thomas Hele of Exeter (d. 1613), and family.