Parracombe is a very small
villageA village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet, but smaller than a town or city. Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New York City and the Saifi Village in...
near
LyntonLynton is a small town in Devon, England. It lies on the northern edge of Exmoor and is located at the top of a gorge above Lynmouth, to which it is connected by the Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway...
, in
DevonDevon is a large county in England. The county is also referred to as Devonshire, although that is an unofficial name, rarely used inside of the county itself and often indicating a traditional or historical context. The county shares borders with Cornwall to the west and Dorset and Somerset to...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is situated in the
HeddonThe River Heddon is a river in Devon, in the south of England. Running along the western edges of Exmoor, the river reaches the North Devon coast at Heddon's Mouth...
Valley, a fold of
ExmoorExmoor is a National Park situated on the Bristol Channel coast of South West England. The park straddles two counties, with 71% of the park located in Somerset and 29% located in Devon. The total area of the park, which includes the Brendon Hills and the Vale of Porlock, covers of hilly open...
, which rises to 1,575 ft. at the South East end of the parish.
There are barrows on Parracombe Common, probably from the
Bronze AgeThe Bronze Age of a culture is the period when the most advanced metalworking in that culture utilised bronze. This could either have been based on the local smelting of copper and tin from ores, or trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere...
, and a number of other small earth-works dotted about the parish. Also close by are
Beacon CastleBeacon Castle is an Iron Age hill fort close to Parracombe in Devon, England. It is situated on a hilltop some above sea level, overlooking the Heddon Valley....
and
Voley CastleVoley Castle is an Iron Age hill fort situated close to Parracombe in Devon, England. The fort is situated on a promontory on the Eastern side of Heale Down at approx 230 Metres above Sea Level....
both
Iron AgeIn archaeology, the Iron Age is the prehistoric period in any area during which cutting tools and weapons were mainly made of iron or steel. The adoption of this material coincided with other changes in society, including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles.The...
Hill fortA hill fort is a type of fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages...
s. Nearby Rowley Barton ("rough clearing") was a manor mentioned in the
Domesday BookThe Domesday Book is the record of the great survey of England completed in 1086, executed for William I of England, or William the Conqueror...
as were East and West Middleton.
Holwell Castle, at Parracombe was a
NormanThe term Norman architecture is used to categorise styles of Romanesque architecture developed by the Normans in the various lands under their dominion or influence in the 11th and 12th centuries. In particular the term is traditionally used for English Romanesque architecture...
motte and bailey castle built to guard the junction of the east–west and north–south trade routes, enabling movement of people and goods and the growth of the population.
Parracombe is a very small
villageA village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet, but smaller than a town or city. Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New York City and the Saifi Village in...
near
LyntonLynton is a small town in Devon, England. It lies on the northern edge of Exmoor and is located at the top of a gorge above Lynmouth, to which it is connected by the Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway...
, in
DevonDevon is a large county in England. The county is also referred to as Devonshire, although that is an unofficial name, rarely used inside of the county itself and often indicating a traditional or historical context. The county shares borders with Cornwall to the west and Dorset and Somerset to...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is situated in the
HeddonThe River Heddon is a river in Devon, in the south of England. Running along the western edges of Exmoor, the river reaches the North Devon coast at Heddon's Mouth...
Valley, a fold of
ExmoorExmoor is a National Park situated on the Bristol Channel coast of South West England. The park straddles two counties, with 71% of the park located in Somerset and 29% located in Devon. The total area of the park, which includes the Brendon Hills and the Vale of Porlock, covers of hilly open...
, which rises to 1,575 ft. at the South East end of the parish.
There are barrows on Parracombe Common, probably from the
Bronze AgeThe Bronze Age of a culture is the period when the most advanced metalworking in that culture utilised bronze. This could either have been based on the local smelting of copper and tin from ores, or trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere...
, and a number of other small earth-works dotted about the parish. Also close by are
Beacon CastleBeacon Castle is an Iron Age hill fort close to Parracombe in Devon, England. It is situated on a hilltop some above sea level, overlooking the Heddon Valley....
and
Voley CastleVoley Castle is an Iron Age hill fort situated close to Parracombe in Devon, England. The fort is situated on a promontory on the Eastern side of Heale Down at approx 230 Metres above Sea Level....
both
Iron AgeIn archaeology, the Iron Age is the prehistoric period in any area during which cutting tools and weapons were mainly made of iron or steel. The adoption of this material coincided with other changes in society, including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles.The...
Hill fortA hill fort is a type of fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages...
s. Nearby Rowley Barton ("rough clearing") was a manor mentioned in the
Domesday BookThe Domesday Book is the record of the great survey of England completed in 1086, executed for William I of England, or William the Conqueror...
as were East and West Middleton.
Holwell Castle, at Parracombe was a
NormanThe term Norman architecture is used to categorise styles of Romanesque architecture developed by the Normans in the various lands under their dominion or influence in the 11th and 12th centuries. In particular the term is traditionally used for English Romanesque architecture...
motte and bailey castle built to guard the junction of the east–west and north–south trade routes, enabling movement of people and goods and the growth of the population. Alternative explanations for its construction suggest it may have been constructed to obtain taxes at the
River HeddonThe River Heddon is a river in Devon, in the south of England. Running along the western edges of Exmoor, the river reaches the North Devon coast at Heddon's Mouth...
bridging place, or to protect and supervise
silverSilver is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
mining in the area around
Combe MartinCombe Martin is a village in Devon, England.The village is a small seaside resort with a sheltered cove on the edge of the Exmoor national park. Due to the narrowness of the valley, it is composed principally of one single long street which runs two miles from the valley head to the sea...
. It was in diameter and high above the bottom of a rock cut ditch which is deep. It was built, in the late 11th or early 12th century, of earth with timber
palisadesPalisade or Palisades may refer to:* Palisade, a type of fence-Geology:* The Palisades , cliffs along the Hudson River in the US states of New York and New Jersey, USA...
for defense and a one or two story wooden dwelling. It was probably built by either Martin de Tours, the first lord of Parracombe, William de Falaise (who married Martin's widow) or Robert FitzMartin, although there are no written records to validate this.
The parish is chiefly remarkable for its old church, which stands on the moorside high above the village. It was proposed to pull it down in the 1870s, but an agitation, in which
John RuskinJohn Ruskin was an English art critic and social thinker, also remembered as an author, poet and artist. His essays on art and architecture were extremely influential in the Victorian and Edwardian eras....
played a leading part, saved it from destruction. A new church was built down in the village in 1878, and the old church, which has a completely unspoiled
GeorgianGeorgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the...
interior, is now used only occasionally in summer. It is dedicated to St Petrock and is undoubtedly a very ancient foundation, but the present building is largely the result of an early 16th-century reconstruction. The
chancelIn architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse....
, however, was not rebuilt at this date, but is early 13th-century work; so, too, is the lower part of the small, square West Tower. The interior is plastered and whitewashed; everything is irregular, leaning in different directions. There are 18th-century
box pewBox pew is a type of church pew that is encased in panelling and was prevalent in England and other Protestant countries from the 16th to early 19th century.-History in England:...
s; an 18th-century screen with a wooden
tympanumIn architecture, a tympanum is the semi-circular or triangular decorative wall surface over an entrance bounded by a lintel and arch. It often contains sculptures or other ornaments...
above it; a Georgian pulpit; and a number of early 16th-century benches also survive. At the back of the church is the musicians' gallery. On the walls are the wooden hat-pegs of the Georgian church, and oval plaques inscribed with suitable texts, such as "Let all things be done decently and in order." There are mural tablets to the old yeoman family of Lock (1667–1803) who still farm in the parish. All the roofs are ceiled and whitewashed.
Until 1935 the village was served by a
haltParracombe was a halt on the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway, a famously scenic narrow gauge line that ran through Exmoor from Barnstaple to Lynton and Lynmouth in North Devon...
on the
Lynton & Barnstaple RailwayThe Lynton & Barnstaple Railway opened as an independent railway in May 1898. It was a single track narrow gauge railway just over 19 miles long running through the rugged and picturesque area bordering Exmoor in North Devon, England. Although opened after the 1896 Light Railways Act came...
which ran close to the centre of the settlement.
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