Sherwell, Devon
Historical Description
Sherwell, a village and a parish in Devonshire. The village stands 4½ miles NE by N of Barnstaple stations on the G.W.R. and L. & S.W.R., and has a post office under Barnstaple; money order office, Pilton; telegraph office, Barnstaple. Acreage, 4759; population, 370. There is a parish council consisting of seven members. The manor and most of the land, with Youlston Park, belong to the Chichester family. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Exeter; gross value, £561 with residence. The church is good.
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 | Sherwill St. Peter | |
Hundred | Sherwill | |
Poor Law union | Barnstaple |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish register dates from the year 1687.
The register of baptisms dates from the year 1538; marriages, 1539; burials, 1546.
Churches
Church of England
St. Peter (parish church)

The church of St. Peter is a building of stone in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave, north transept, south aisle, south porch and a low embattled tower on the south side, with pinnacles containing 6 bells, all cast by William Evans, of Chepstow, in 1733: the chancel retains a piscina, and in the north wall is the recumbent effigy of a lady in a long straight-flowing dress and mantle and wearing a square ornamented head-dress; the figure is assumed to represent Blanche, daughter of William Bourchier, Lord Fitzwarren, and wife of Bartholomew St. Leger, ob. 4th January, 1483; the fine and ancient oak screen dividing the chancel from the nave, which existed in 1847, has now disappeared: the font is possibly Norman: the church has been restored since 1873 at a cost of £1,336 and affords 200 sittings.
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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 Sherwell from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Sherwill (St. Peter))
Maps
Online maps of Sherwell 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.