Holcombe Burnell is located within Teignbridge local authority area. Historically it formed part of Wonford Hundred. It falls within Kenn 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 176 in 1801 167 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website. In 1641/2 39 adult males signed the Protestation returns.

A parish history file is held in Moretonhampstead 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 Holcombe Burnell 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 79/11 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 79SE
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SX859916. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SX89SE, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Explorer 114, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 191. Geological sheet 325 also covers the area.

Illustrations: The image below is of Holcombe Burnell 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:

HOLCOMBE BURNELL is in rolling green country S. of the Exeter to Okehampton road, a parish of scattered farms and no village. The church and the barton (formerly the manor house of Sir Thomas Dennis) stand alone, with superb views of combes and wooded hills S. from the sycamore shaded churchyard.

The church (St. John the Baptist) was rebuilt, all but the tower, in 1843- 4, but is still a pleasant country church in character. The 15th century style was preserved, and there are traces of Norman work in the S. doorway. The rood-screen was used to make the pulpit, which has eight panels painted with the Madonna, Gabriel, and six saints. Apart from some small remains of medieval coloured glass, the church is excellently lit with clear glass. The decent box-pews date from 1844. There are the usual floor-slabs, mostly 17th century, to local gentry and yeomen. The Easter sepulchre was used as the tomb of Sir Robert Dennis, 1592. Holcombe Barton has much early Tudor work. It was built as a manor house in Henry VIII's reign by Sir Thomas Dennis (c. 480-1561), a great power in Devon at this time. He was a privy councillor, chancellor of Anne of Cleves, custos rotulorum for Devon, frequently sheriff of the county between 1508 and 1556, and recorder of Exeter 1514-44.