Hemyock

HEMYOCK, or Hemiock, is a parish and considerable village, having a station on the Culm Valley branch of the Great Western Railway. It is pleasantly situated on the south side of the river Culm, in the picturesque valley near Culmbridge, 5 miles S. of Wellington, and 9 miles N.E. of Cullompton. The parish, which gives name to a hundred, is in Wellington union and county court district, Cullompton petty sessional division, Exeter archdeaconry, and Tiverton East rural deanery. It had 963 inhabitants (497 males, 486 females) in 1871, living in 206 houses, on 6437 acres of land. The rateable value of the parish is £6388 7s. 2d. The villages of Barrowhill (in the town tithing); Madford (in Madford tithing), Ashculm and Pennycross (in Ashculm tithing), and the tithing of Culmdavey, are all in this parish. Culmdavey is on the opposite acclivities of the valley, adjoining the lofty Black Down hills and the borders of Somersetshire. The principal owners of the soil are Captain Follett, andMessrs. E. Farrant, George Barton, Marh Matthews, Thomas Hine, and James Bowerman. The manor of Hemyock, part of the demesne of the crown at Domesday Survey, was soon afterwards possessed by the ancient family of Hidon, who had a castle here, which was used as a garrison and prison by the Parliamentarians in the 17th century. There are still some remains of four of the towers and a gateway of this castle, which passed, with the manor, from the Hidons to the Dinhams, and was purchased by the late General Simcoe. The manor of Culmdavey is the property of Captain Follett, and was formerly held by the Widworthy, Wogan, Corbett, Bowerman, and other families. The CHURCH (St. Mary) was rebuilt, in 1846-7, by subscription and rates, aided by grants from the Incorporated and Exeter Diocesan Societies. The east window is filled with stained glass, containing representations of scenes of the life of our Lord; and in the church is a Saxon font, of Purbeck stone. In connection with the old building was a chantry, founded by Peter Uvedale, and endowed with £10 a year. The living is a rectory, valued in K.B. at £32 Os. 7½d., and now at £844, with the curacy of Culmdavey annexed, in the patronage of Edward Wm. Leyborne Popham, Esq., of Littlecote, Wiltshire, and in the incumbency of the Rev. Edward William Leyborne Popham, B.A., who has a good residence, embowered in trees, and a glebe of 100 acres. The tithes were commuted in 1842-3 for £700 a year. There is a chapel at Culmdavey with 90 sittings, which was restored in 1850. The WESLEYAN CHAPEL. was built by subscription, in 1838, at a cost of over £300, on a site given by the late Mr. Robert Wood. The BAPTIST CHAPEL was built by subscription, in 1866, at a cost of £600, on a site given by the late Mr. James Lock, and will accommodate 300 persons; attached to the chapel is a burial-ground, also the gift of Mr. Loch. The SCHOOL BOARD was formed on March 16, 1876, and consists of the Rev. Edward W. Leyborne Popham (chairman), and Messrs. E. Lutley (vice-chairman), Henry and William Farrant, and J. Lawrence. Mr. Edward North, of Ashculm, is clerk. The Board School, with teacher's residence, was built in 1877, at a cost of £1300, to accommodate 156 scholars. The poor parishioners have 10 acres of land, called Hurcombe, purchased in 1651 with £100, left by Peter Holway and other donors. They have also two yearly rent-charges, viz., 20s., left by Charles Ford, in the 25th of Elizabeth, out of Strood and Kean's meadows; and 5s. left by Nicholas Lacke, out of land at Dunkeswell. Nicholas Marke, at an early period, charged Ashcombe estate with the yearly, payment of £5 for apprenticing poor children. This parish has a share of Waldron's Charity for schooling poor children, as noticed with Clayhidon

POST OFFICE at Mr. John Hine's. Letters are received. at 8.50 a.m., and despatched at 4.30 p.m. viâ Wellington, Somerset, but UffcuIme is the nearest Money Order and Telegraph Office.