Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for STONEHOUSE (East)

STONEHOUSE (East), a town, a parish, and a district, in Devon. The town stands on the South Devon and Cornwall railway, between Plymouth and Devonport; is separated from Plymouth only by Millbay and an artificial boundary,-from Devonport only by a creek of the Hamoaze; stands compactly with Plymouth on the line of Union-street, Twickenham-place, and other thoroughfares; communicates with Devonport by a bridge built in 1773; was anciently called Hepestone or Hipperstone; took its present name from Joel de Stonehouse, the proprietor of its manor in the time of Henry III.; was only a smalland poor village so late as about 1760; rose rapidly to importance, chiefly through erection of government establishments, after the commencement of the present century; was made part of the parliamentary borough of Devonport by the reform act of 1832; is now a well built place, with several handsome streets; contains the Royal Naval hospital, the Royal Marine barracks, the Royal William victualling-yard, a ship-building-yard, an oyster depôt, and a large grinding and baking establishment; carries on considerable commerce, in connexion with these establishments; and has a post-office‡ under Plymouth, a public hall, the Royal Western yacht club-house, three churches, six dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, five public schools, and a workhouse. The Royal Naval hospital was built in 1762, and has accommodation for 1,200 persons. The Royal Marine barracks form an oblong suite of buildings, and have capacity for about 700 men. The Royal William victualling-yard was completed in 1835, at a cost of £1,500,000; occupies an area of nearly 15 acres, 6 of which were reclaimed from the sea; and forms a quadrangular pile of buildings, with spacious quays or terraces, fronted by a sea-wall 1,500 feet long. The Devil's Point, at the back of the victualling-yard, is high-ground, commanding a very fine view; and has a reservoir with capacity for 6,000 tuns of water, and a battery where the Royal Marine artillery practise with heavy shot. The public hall bears the name of St. George's Hall; was built in 1850, at a cost of £4,250; is in the Palladian style, Doric and Corinthian: and contains court-rooms, magistrates' rooms, a police station, a prison, a public newsroom, and the reading room and library of a literary and scientific institution.

The parish comprises 270 acres of land, and 115 of water. Real property, £39,582; of which £156 are in quarries. Pop. in 1851, 11,979; in 1861, 14,343. Houses, 1,245. The manor belongs to the Earl of Mount-Edgcumbe. The livings of St. George and St. Paul are p. curacies in the diocese of Exeter. Value of St. G., £300;* of St. P., not reported. Patron of St. G., the Vicar of St-St. Andrew; of St. P., the Incumbent of Stonehouse-St. G.—The district is conterminate with the parish. Poor rates in 1863, £3,888. Marriages in 1863, 196; births, 603,-of which 20 were illegitimate; deaths, 399,-of which 182 were at ages under 5 years, and 3 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 2,064; births, 4,677; deaths, 3,562.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, a parish, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: East Stonehouse Ch/CP       East Stonehouse RegD/PLU/Inc       Devon AncC
Place names: EAST STONEHOUSE     |     HEPESTONE     |     HIPPERSTONE     |     STONEHOUSE     |     STONEHOUSE EAST
Place: East Stonehouse

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