Kingswear, Devon
Historical Description
Kingswear, a village and a parish in Devonshire. The village stands on the estuary of the Dart, opposite Dartmouth, and has a station on the G.W.R., 225 miles from London, and 4 SW of Brixham. It is supposed to be older than Dartmouth, and occupies the skirts of a steep hill, which affords fine shelter from northerly and easterly winds, and renders it a good residence for invalids. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Dartmouth. Acreage, 97; population, 850. Remains exist on the hill's summit of embankments or bastions which were formed during the siege of Dartmouth, and taken by General Fairfax, which were known at the time as Kingsworth Fort, but are now called Mount Bidley, and which command a fine view. Kingswear Castle stood at the 'nouth of the Dart for the defence of Dartmouth Harbour, and is now a ruinous, shattered, and picturesque tower. A modern castle of the same name has been erected. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Exeter; value, £100 with residence. Patron, the Crown. The church, excepting the tower, was rebuilt in 1847, and it contains a piscina and a very ancient font. There is a Wesleyan chapel. The clubhouse of the Royal Dart Yacht Club was erected in 1881.
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 | Kingswear St. Thomas à Becket | |
| Hundred | Heytor | |
| Poor Law union | Totnes |
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 Kingswear
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Kingswear from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Kingswear (St. Thomas à Becket))
Maps
Online maps of Kingswear 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.