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Giles, St.

GILES, ST., a parish, in the union of Torrington, hundred of Fremington, Torrington and N. divisions of Devon, 3 miles (E. by S.) from Torrington; containing 915 inhabitants. This place participated in the hos tilities of the reign of Charles I., when Stevenson, the ancient manorial residence of the family of Rolle, was taken by Sir Thomas Fairfax, on the 16th of February, 1646. The parish comprises by measurement 4544 acres, of which 3474 are arable, 385 pasture, 292 coppice, 42 orchard, and 10 garden; the soil is light and stony in some places, but for the most part clayey: stone of good quality for building and the roads is quarried in abundance. The Rolle canal connects the parish with Torrington and the port of Bideford; and the road from Bideford and Torrington to Exeter partly intersects it. The living is a perpetual curacy, annexed to that of Torrington: the church, erected in 1675, is of plain architecture, and, among other monuments, contains one to the memory of Tristram Risdon, the antiquary.

Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.

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