AYLESBEARE is a parish and small but picturesque village, pleasantly situated, on the western declivity of the bold range of hills between the vales of the Exe and the Otter, 8 miles east of Exeter. The parish, which includes the tything of Newton Poppleford (noticed at a subsequent page), is in St. Thomas union, Exeter county court district, Ottery petty sessional division, Ottery St. Mary polling district of East Devon, Exeter archdeaconry, Aylesbeare rural deanery, and East Budleigh hundred. It had 1090 inhabitants (503 males, 587 females) in 1871, living in 231 houses, on 2948 acres of land; of these 676 persons (306 males, 270 females) living in 147 houses, are in Newton Poppleford tithing. The parish contains 541 acres of common land and unenclosed, known as Aylesbeare hill, and dividing the western from the eastern portion of the parish. All freeholders of Aylesbeare and their tenants have a customary and long-established right of cutting turf and furze, as well as of pasturage for their cattle, on this common. The manor of Aylesbeare was long held by the Courtenays as part of the barony of Oakhampton. After the attainder of Sir Francis Englefield, one moiety was granted to the Earl of Essex, who sold it to the tenants. The other moiety was sold to an ancestor of the late Lord Rolle, and is now vested in the trustees of the Rolle estate, who own the greater part of the parish. The vicar of Aylesbeare has a portion of a small manor, ' Woods,' now Glebe farm. MINCHIN COURT, adjoining the vicarage, is an ancient edifice, with some interesting remains, notably the arms of Yarty and of Hurst, carved on the exterior of an old chimney. Minchin Court, with its estate of about 70 acres, formerly belonged to the prioress and convent of St. Catharine at Polslo. It is now, with freehold land adjoining, the property of the Rev. William H. Carwithen. John Elliott, Esq., W. C. Walker, Esq., Edward Johnson, Esq., witli a few others, have also freehold estates here.
>The parish (mother) church (Blessed Virgin Mary) is an ancient structure with an embattled tower and three bells, surrounded bv a turret at the north-eastern angle, overtopping the fine old lime trees in the churchyard. There is a handsome lich-gate at the eastern entrance, erected in 1873. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in K.B. at £16 2s. 4d., and in 1881. at £155. The Rev. W. H. Carwithen, M.A., is the patron, and the present vicar, and has a good thatched residence with 69 acres of glebe. The tithes were commuted in 1841 for £143 15s. 2d. to the vicar, .£81 7s. 3d. to the rector of Huxham, and £74 17s. 7d. to Rev. H. W. Marker. The SCHOOL BOARD for the united district of Aylesbeare, Harpford, and Venn Ottery was formed on 14th June, 1875, and consists of (vacant) (chairman), R. H. Lipscomb, Esq. (vice), the Rev. W. H. Carwithen (hon. clerk), and Messrs. Thomas Yelverton, Jonathan Taylor, and Abraham Smith. The principal Board school of the district is here. In 1696 Richard White, by his will, left 30s. a year out of Porch House (now the Cannon Inn) 'for the schooling of six poor children, to learn to read English, in trust to the churchwardens of Aylesbeare and to their successors for ever.'
>POST OFFICE at Miss Mary Tilke's, Newton Poppleford. Letters are received at 8,20 a.m., and despatched at 4.60 p.m. via Ottery St. Mary, which is the nearest Money Order Office. There is a WALL LETTER Box at Aylesbeare cleared at 4.35 p.m. week days only. Broadclyst is the nearest Money Order Office and Railway Station.
Transcribed from History, Gazetteer and Directory of Devon, by William White, 2nd edition, 1878-9