West Anstey 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 215 in 1801 192 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website. In 1641/2 60 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 West Anstey 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 23/3 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 23NE
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SS852275. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SS82NE, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Explorer 114, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 181. Geological sheet 294 also covers the area.

Extract from Devon by W.G.Hoskins (1954), included by kind permission of the copyright holder:

WEST ANSTEY has a 15th century church (St. Petrock), much restored in 1880, with a Norman font. Ringcombe was a small Domesday estate.