Torbryan is located within South Hams local authority area. Historically it formed part of Haytor Hundred. It falls within Moretonhampstead 2 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 258 in 1801 164 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website. In 1641/2 99 adult males signed the Protestation returns.

A parish history file is held in Newton Abbot & Ipplepen 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 Torbryan 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 115/6 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 115NW
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SX822668. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SX86NW, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Explorer 031, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 202. Geological sheet 339 also covers the area.

Illustrations: The image below is of Torbryan 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:

TORBRYAN possesses what is perhaps the most uniformly attractive village church in Devon (Holy Trinity). It is entirely an early 15th century building with an imposing, severely plain W. tower. The interior is completely characteristic of a Devon country church in its plan and fittings. The white Beer stone arcades, the plastered walls and ceilings, and the uninterrupted light coming through the large windows of clear glass (except some coloured medieval glass in the traceried heads) make a perfect foil for the vivid polychrome of the screen, pulpit, and altar table. It is all highly "atmospheric."

The rood-screen (c. 1430) has lost its vaulting, and has been in places cheaply restored; the carved woodwork of the altar table is of exceptional beauty and merit. It is made up of woodwork taken from the original medieval pulpit and is so well put together as to have the appearance of an original medieval composition. The present pulpit is in turn made up from the pier-casings of the rood-screen. The 15th century seating is preserved, encased within early 18th century box-pews which all have brass candle-holders. The four bells are the original medieval bells, said to have been cast at Exeter temp. Henry VI. The Church House Inn,c. 1500 in date, was formerly the Church House. At Tornewton was born Sir William Petre (1505-72) the son of an ancient franklin family. He became Secretary of State to four monarchs, profited greatly by monastic spoils, and founded a great new family of which Lord Petre (the 17th) is the present representative 1 1.5 m. N. of Torbryan is Denbury, now united with it for civil purposes. Denbury is an ancient village, taking its name from the strong earthwork which crowns a lofty igneous rock to the SW. It is "the fort of the men of Devon" (Defnas burh), a name which may well commemorate a stronghold where the Dumnonii held out for a time against a Saxon advance from the head of the Teign estuary. The fort consists of an elliptical, ramparted area, with an outer court on the W. side, and with two large mounds in the main camp. (It has never been excavated and its date is unknown: it may conceivably be of two distinct periods.

Denbury belonged to Tavistock Abbey in 1086 and possibly earlier. It market in 1286, and given the status of a borough with a portreeve some time in the 14th century (See V.H.C., 589-90 for a fuller description) but never became more than a village. The church (St. Mary) is a cruciform building with a battered tower, all of early 14th century date and pretty certainly the church dedicated by Bishop Stapeldonin 1318. (Reg, Stapledon, 137) The fine 12th century font remains from an earlier church.

Denbury House is an Elizabethan mansion. There is some good 16th and 17th century building in the village; several houses have massive chimney-breasts on the street, a characteristic feature of certain Devon villages.