In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Branscombe like this:
BRANSCOMBE, a village and a parish in Honiton district, Devon. The village stands on the coast, 4½ miles E of Sidmouth, and 8 S by E of Honiton r. station; and has a post office under Sidmouth. It is a straggling but very pleasant place; and carries on a manufacture of pillow-lace. The parish comprises 3,422 acres of land and 65 of water. ...
Real property, £4,218. Pop., 936. Houses, 199. The property is subdivided. The manor belonged, before the Conquest, to the Dean and Chapter of Exeter. Edge or Egge, in a valley N of the village, was the residence, in the time of Edward III., of the Branscombe family; and thence till 1609, of the Wadhams, the last of whom founded Wadham College in Oxford. Three valleys, each traversed by a stream, diverge from the vicinity of the village, and are flanked by picturesque hills. A small bay below the village bears the name of Branscombe mouth, and is famous for calcedonies. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Exeter. Value, £190.* Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Exeter. The church is cruciform, and partly Norman, partly English; has a central tower in disrepair; and contains an ancient monument with two kneeling effigies
Branscombe through time
Branscombe is now part of East Devon district. Click here for graphs and data of how East Devon has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Branscombe itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Branscombe in East Devon | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/6175
Date accessed: 18th April 2024
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