Branscombe, Devon
Historical Description
Branscombe, a village and a parish in Devonshire. The village stands on the coast, 6 miles E of Sidmouth, and 4 W from Seaton station on the L. & S.W.R. It has a post office under Axminster; money order and telegraph office, Beer, 2 miles distant. It is a straggling but very pleasant place, and carries on a manufacture of pillow-lace. The parish comprises 3429 acres; population, 742. The manor belonged before the Conquest to the Dean and Chapter of Exeter. Edge or Egge, in a valley N of the village, was the residence in the time of Edward III. of the Branscombe family, and thence till 1618 of the Wadhams, the last of whom founded Wadham College in Oxford. Three valleys, flanked by picturesque hills, diverge from the vicinity of the village, and are traversed by streams, which uniting run into the sea at a small bay below the village, called Branscombe Mouth, at which is the coastguard station. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Exeter; net value, £250 with residence. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Exeter. The church is cruciform and partly Norman, partly English, has a central tower, and contains an ancient monument of the Wadham family, with two kneeling effigies. There is also in the same (north) transept a much older one of the Holcombe family, once resident at Hole, now a farmhouse.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Devon | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Branscombe St. Winifred | |
| Hundred | Colyton | |
| Poor Law union | Honiton |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
Findmypast, in association with the South West Heritage Trust, Parochial Church Council, and Devon Family History Society have the Baptisms, Banns, Marriages, and Burials online for Branscombe
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 Branscombe from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Branscombe (St. Winifred))
Maps
Online maps of Branscombe 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:
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.