Bridestow, Devon
Historical Description
Bridestow, a village and a parish in Devonshire. The village lies in a pleasant valley near Dartmoor, 6 miles SW of Okehampton, and has a station on the L. & S.W.R., 204 miles from London. It was formerly called Bridgetstow, and has a post office (R.S.O.); money order office, Okehampton; telegraph office, Bridestow (R.S.O.) The parish comprises 5687 acres; population of the civil parish, 586; of the ecclesiastical, 589. Millaton House is the seat of the Newton family, and contains a collection of natural history objects from Dartmoor, and Leawood was long the seat of the Calmady family, and is now the seat of the Hamlyn family. The living is a rectory united with the perpetual curacy of Sourton in the diocese of Exeter; net value, £256 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Exeter. The church is very old, has a curious Norman gateway, and was restored in 1866. There are also Congregational, Wesleyan, and Bible Christian chapels.
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 | Bridestowe St. Bridget | |
Hundred | Lifton | |
Poor Law union | Oakhampton |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
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 Bridestow from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Bridestowe (St. Bridget))
Maps
Online maps of Bridestow 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.