Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for CHAGFORD

CHAGFORD, a small town, a parish, and a subdistrict in Okehampton district, Devon. The town stands on elevated ground, near the river Teign, on the skirts of Dartmoor, 4 miles WNW of Moreton-Hampstead r. station, and 12 SW of Crediton; and has a post office‡ under Exeter, and two inns. It is a picturesque old place, amid romantic environs, in a bracing climate, repulsive during winter, but attractive to tourists and to invalids in summer. It was made a stannary town in 1328; and it sustained an attack by the royalists in the wars of Charles I. The Three Crowns inn at it was built as a mansion, by Judge Whyddon, in the time of James I.; and served afterwards as the dower-house of Whyddon Park. Markets are held on Saturdays; and fairs on the first Thursday of May, and the last Thursday of March, Sept., and Oct. The parish comprises 7,492 acres. Real property, £7,014. Pop., 1,379. Houses, 273. The property is much subdivided. The manor belonged to Dodo the Saxon; was given by the Conqueror to the Bishop of Coutances; and passed, in the time of Henry III., to Sir Hugh de Chagford, and afterwards to Judge Whyddon. Several ancient British antiquities occur among the hills. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Exeter. Value, £539.* Patron, the Rev. H. G. Hames. The church is a good ancient structure, with a square embattled tower; and contains a grand monument of Judge Whyddon. There are chapels for Wesleyan Methodists and Bible Christians. Charities, £44. The subdistrict contains four parishes. Acres, 19,821. Pop., 2,907. Houses, 608.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town, a parish, and a subdistrict"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Chagford AP/CP       Chagford SubD       Okehampton RegD/PLU       Devon AncC
Place: Chagford

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