Clovelly (All Saints)

CLOVELLY (All Saints), a parish, in the union of Bideford, hundred of Hartland, Great Torrington and N. divisions of Devon, 11 miles (W. by S.) from Bideford; containing 950 inhabitants. At this place was a Roman trajectus from Carmarthen; and till within the last few years, the remains of a fort, erected by the Romans for the defence of the pass, were plainly discernible. The village is romantically situated, in a district abounding with geological attractions, on the acclivities of a shelving and precipitous rock, rising abruptly from the Bristol Channel to the height of several hundred feet above the harbour, and crowned with luxuriant verdure. The harbour, which is an appendage to the port of Bideford, and, though small, remarkable for its security, is partly formed by a substantial pier erected by a member of the family of Carew, by whose ancestor the manor was purchased in the reign of Richard II. A considerable trade is carried on in the herring-fishery, for which Clovelly is the most noted place on the coast; the herrings are esteemed the finest taken in the Channel, and the fishery furnishes employment to the principal part of the labouring class. The parish comprises 2578 acres, of which 300 are common or waste. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £19. 11. 5½., and in the patronage of Sir J. H. Williams, Bart.: the tithes have been commuted for £200, and the glebe contains 78 acres. The church, which was made collegiate for a warden and six chaplains, by the family of Carew, in the 11th of Richard II., contains some handsome monuments. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans. On the heights above the village is a large encampment, called Dichen, or the Clovelly ditches, consisting of three trenches or dykes, inclosing a quadrilateral area 360 feet in height and 300 in breadth.