Stokenham, Devon

Historical Description

Stokenham or Stokingham, a village and a parish in Devonshire. The village stands 5 miles ESE of Kingsbridge, and 6 from Kingsbridge station on the G.W.R. It was once a market-town, and has a post office under Kingsbridge; money order and telegraph office, Torcross. The parish contains also four other villages, two hamlets, and a coastguard station, and comprises 5774 acres of land and 290 of water and foreshore; population of the civil parish, 1545; of the ecclesiastical, 2345. There is a parish council consisting of twelve members. The living is a vicarage, united with Chivelstone and Sherford, in the diocese of Exeter; net value, £150 with residence. Patron, the Crown. The church is Later English, and has been restored. There is a Congregational chapel.

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 registers date from the year 1578.

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 Stokenham

Churches

Church of England

St. Michael and All Angels (parish church)

The church of St. Michael and All Angels, formerly dedicated to St. Barnabas, is a large building of stone in the Perpendicular style, consecrated in 1431 and consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, transepts, south porch and an embattled western tower containing 6 bells: the chancel retains its piscina, and the fine screen has been restored and re-decorated: the font is of early date: the pulpit is of stone, but has been painted to match the screen, and was a gift by the Freemasons of England during the incumbency of the Rev. John Charles Carwithen: the east window is a memorial to Mrs. Holdsworth, d. 1875: a stained window in the south transept commemorates 28 persons who perished in the wreck or the "Spirit of the Ocean" on this coast 23rd March, 1866, and there is another erected by the Holdsworth family to their mother, who died in 1888, and one to the Allen family: the church was restored in 1874 at a cost of £1,200, and the chancel in 1890, by A. F. Holdsworth esq. at a cost of £300: there are 600 sittings. John Somaster, the last of the family of that name at Painsford, in Ashprington, was buried here in 1681.

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 Stokenham from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Stokenham (St. Barnabas))

Maps

Online maps of Stokenham 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.