Halberton (St. Andrew)

HALBERTON (St. Andrew), a parish, in the union of Tiverton, hundred of Halberton, Collumpton and N. divisions of Devon, 3 miles (E.) from Tiverton; containing 1739 inhabitants. The parish is situated on the road from Tiverton to Taunton, and comprises nearly 8000 acres of arable and pasture land in nearly equal portions; the soil is various, though generally a red clay, and the surface is gently undulated. Stone, chiefly for building, is quarried; and in excavating the line of the Western canal in the parish, a vein of rock was discovered, which, from the durability of the stone, and the facility of obtaining it in large blocks, was used in many parts of that extensive work. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £31, and in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Bristol: the appropriate tithes have been commuted for £550, and the vicarial for £682; the glebe consists of half an acre. The church, which has portions in the Norman and later English styles, contains some curious monuments, and a pulpit and screen of oak, elaborately enriched with carving: the building was injured, and the organ demolished, by a party of Cromwell's soldiers quartered here for a short time during the war. This church appertained to the abbey of St. Augustine, Bristol, and in the churchyard was a chantry chapel. A fraternity of St. John the Baptist was also attached to the church. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans. Mr. Spicer, of Exeter, in 1832 recovered from the Chamber of that city the sum of £80 per annum, for the poor of Halberton. The water of Halberton Pond preserves so mild a temperature that it is never known to freeze.