Dodbrooke (St. Thomas à Becket)

DODBROOKE (St. Thomas à Becket), a parish, in the union of Kingsbridge, hundred of Coleridge, Stanborough and Coleridge, and S. divisions of Devon, ½ a mile (E.) from Kingsbridge; containing 1229 inhabitants. This place derives its name from the Dod, a small stream by which the parish is separated from that of Kingsbridge: it is of some antiquity, and in the time of Edward the Confessor was the property of Brietric, sheriff for the county. The inhabitants obtained, in the reign of Henry III., the grant of a weekly market, and a fair for two days on the festival of St. Mary Magdalene. The town or village, situated on the declivity of a hill, is indifferently built, but well supplied with water; and is noted for its white ale, a beverage peculiar to this part of Devonshire, which is ready for use on the day after it is brewed. The market was formerly regular, but is now held only on the third Wednesday in every month, and exclusively for cattle: there is a cattle-fair on the Wednesday before Palm-Sunday. The living is a discharged rectory, valued in the king's books at £8. 11. 4.; net income, £183; patron, the Rev. C. G. Owen. The church, built on rising ground at the extremity of the town, is an old structure, strengthened with buttresses, and anciently embattled; it contains a stone font in the early English style, and a wooden screen finely carved, Dr. Wolcot, the satirical poet, more generally known by the assumed name of Peter Pindar, was a native of the place.