Abbotskerswell

Abbotskerswell, or Abbot's Carswell, is a parish and pleasant village, 2 miles S.W. of Newton Abbot, in Newton Abbot union and county court district, Teignbridge petty sessional division, Newton Abbot polling district of East Devon, Haytor hundred, Totnes archdeaconry, and Moreton rural deanery. The parish, which includes the hamlet of Aller, had 453 inhabitants (231 males, 222 females) in 1871, living in 99 houses, on 1461 acres of land. It had formerly within it two manors, namely, that of Abbotskerswell proper, belonging to the Abbey of Sherborne, in Dorsetshire, and that of Aller; parts of the ancient manor-houses still remain. William Creed, Esq., is lord of the manor, and the principal owners of the soil are the heirs of the late Captain Marcus Hare, R.N., Messrs. John and William Creed, Richard Ford, John Vicary, and __ Nickels. Some of the smaller holdings have been in the families of their present proprietors for many generations. Kerswell is a corruption of Carsewell, the more ancient way of writing the name, Carse being Saxon for cress, for which the stream running through the village was formerly noted. It was called Abbot's Carsewell to distinguish it from the neighbouring parish of King's Carsewell, the manor of which belonged to the king.