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Shirwell is located within North Devon local authority area. Historically it formed part of Sherwell Hundred. It falls within Shirwell 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 513 in 1801 338 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website. In 1641/2 95 adult males signed the Protestation returns.

A parish history file is held in Barnstaple 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 Shirwell 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 9/12 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 9SE
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SS597374. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SS53NE, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Outdoor Leisure 09, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 180. Geological sheet 293 also covers the area.

Illustrations: The image below is of Shirwell 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:

SHIRWELL is an old village, which gave its name to a hundred. The church (St. Peter) is a much-restored 15th century building. In the chancel is an effigy, believed to be that of Blanche St. Leger, day of William Bourchier, Lord Fitzwarren (d. 1483). Above this tomb is a monument to Anne Lady Chichester (1723). A branch of the Chichesters lived at Youlston from Henry VII's time to the early 20th century.

Youlston is an 18th century house. Youlston Old Park, 1 m. S. of the village, is presumably the site of an earlier house. Plaistow Barton was a Domesday manor.