Bishops Nympton, Devon

Historical Description

Bishops-Nympton, a village and a parish in Devonshire. The village stands 3½ miles SE of South-Molton, with a station called Bishops-Nympton and Molland on the G.W.R., 188 miles from London, and has a post office under South Molton, which is the money order and telegraph office, and fairs on the third Monday of April, and on the Wednesday before 25 Oct. The parish includes also the hamlets of Bish-Mill, Ash-Mill, and Newton. Acreage, 9623; population, 999. An old house, called the Parsonage, is believed to have been a residence of the Bishop of Exeter. Limestone abounds. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Exeter; gross commuted value, £379; net value, about £260. Patron, the Bishop of Exeter. The church is a fine ancient edifice, of nave, chancel, and south aisle, with a pinnacled tower about 100 feet high, was restored in 1883, and contains a rich monument so effaced that no one knows to whom it was erected. A beautiful stained window was placed in the south aisle in 1892 by Mr Andrew Keates, of Llangollen, in memory of his father, Mr William Keates. There are Wesleyan Methodist and Bible Christian chapels.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

The parish register dates from the year 1556.

Churches

Church of England

St. Mary the Virgin (parish church)

The church of St. Mary is an ancient building of mixed styles, consisting of chancel, nave, south aisle, south porch and an embattled western tower, with pinnacles, containing a clock and 6 bells, restored in 1883 at a cost of £100: the tower was restored and the clock regilded in 1913 at a cost of £130: on the south side of the tower is a canopied niche containing a figure; the east window is stained, and there is a memorial window to the Rev. Canon Heberden: the font is Norman and has a square basin placed on a circular shaft, with others at the angles: on the north side of the chancel is an altar tomb, with quatrefoiled sides, but withont any figure or inscription; probably erected to Sir Lewis Pollard kt. born about 1465, King's Serjeant in 1507 and subsequently a Justice of the Common Pleas; he died in 1540: the church was entirely restored in 1869 at a cost of £1,500, and in 1877 £1,090 was expended on various improvements: in 1889 a stained window was erected to the late W. Keates esq. to whose memory a stone pulpit was also placed in the church at the same time by his tenants and friends at a cost of £80: in 1895 an organ chamber was built, and the organ was completely renovated at a cost of £200 in commemoration of the 60th year of the reign of Her late Majesty Queen Victoria: there are 400 sittings.

Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Bishops Nympton from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Nympton, or Nymett, Bishop's)

Maps

Online maps of Bishops Nympton are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following newspapers covering Devon online:

• Western Times
• Exeter and Plymouth Gazette
• Western Morning News
• North Devon Journal
• Exeter Flying Post

Villages, Hamlets, &c

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitation of the County of Devon in the year 1564, with additions from the earlier visitation of 1531, is online.

The Visitations of the County of Devon, comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564, & 1620, with additions by Lieutant-Colonel J.L. Vivian, published for the author by Henry S. Eland, Exeter 1895 is online.