Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for OTTERY-ST. MARY

OTTERY-ST. MARY, a town, a parish, a sub-district, and a hundred, in Devon. The town stands on the river Otter, adjacent to a railway in course of formationin 1867, from the London, Yeovil, and Exeter railway to Sidmouth and Salterton, 2¾ miles S W of Ottery-Road r. station, and 6 S W of Honiton; is a place of considerable antiquity; was once sectioned into three parts, called Ottery, St. Mary, Ottery, St. Budeaux, and Ottery, St. Saviour; had a college for 40 members, founded in 1337 by Bishop Grandison, with revenues estimated in the time of Henry VIII. at £303, and given then to the Earl of Hertford; was occupied by alternately the parliamentarians and the royalists in the civil wars of Charles I.; suffered great devastation by pestilence during an occupancy by the parliamentarians; was visited at that time by Oliver Cromwell, and in 1688 by the Prince of Orange; had forresidents Sir Walter Raleigh and W. Browne, author of" Britain's Pastorals, " and for natives the poet Coleridge and the garter-king-at-arms Sir Isaac Heard; suffereddamage or destruction of about 120 houses by an accidental fire in May 1866; is somewhat irregularly builtbut pleasantly and picturesquely situated, with bold sheltering hills on the E and the W; is a seat of petty sessions; and has a post-office‡ under Exeter, three chiefinns, a bridge, a magnificent ancient church, Independent and Wesleyan chapels, a grammar-school, national and parish schools, alms-houses, and charities administeredby feoffees, whose income amounts to £797. The church is variously early English, decorated, and perpendicular; was partly built in 1260, by Bishop Bronescombe, after the model of Exeter cathedral; includes portions addedby Bishop Grandison; comprises nave, transept, choir, and Lady chapel, with two towers; underwent carefulrestoration in 1849-50; shows many features of much interest and great beauty; and contains a piscina, two sets of sedilia, a chancel screen, a stone reredos, a moderninlaid marble font, and a number of ancient elaboratemonuments. The ancient college was connected with it; and two suffragan bishops, Cornish of Tyne and Chard of Solubræ, were wardens; while Barclay, the author of the" Ship of Fools, " was a priest. The grammar-school was founded by Henry VIII. in 1546, on the dissolution of the ancient college; is endowed and kept in repair from the small tithes, vested in the church corporation; hadas a master, for many years, the father of the poet Coleridge; and numbers among its pupils Bishops Luxmoore, Coleridge, and Patteson, and Judges Buller and Coleridge. A weekly market is held on Thursday; great markets, on the first Thursday of Aug.; and the first Thursday of Dec.; and fairs, on the last Tuesday of March and the third Tuesday of Sept. A considerable manufactory of serges was formerly carried on, but went into decline; and an extensive silk factory, for shoe ribbons, handkerchiefs, and other fabrics, is still in operation. Pop. of the town in 1861, 2, 429. Houses, 542.

The parish contains also the hamlets of Alphington, Fluxton, Tipton, and Wiggaton, and the tythings of the Town, Alphington, Fluxton, Tipton, Wiggaton, Rill, Gosford, and Cadhay. Acres, 9, 942. Real property, £17, 806 Pop. in 1851, 4, 421; in 1861, 4, 340. Houses, 925. The manor was given by Edward the Confessor to the Cathedral church of St. Mary at Rouen; passed to Bishop Grandison, by purchase, in 1334: went to the Crown in the time of Henry VIII., and passed to successively a Mr. Burridge, Sir George Yonge, John M. Howe, Esq., and Sir John Kennaway, Bart. Heath's Court is the seat of Sir J. T. Coleridge. Cadhay, a Tudor mansion, belongs to Sir Thomas Hare, Bart. Gosford House is the seat of Sir H. A. Farrington, Bart. Ash is the property of the Markers; Holcombe, of the Grants; Knightstone, of the Drurys; and Thorne, of the Episcopal schools at Exeter. The parish is cut ecclesiastically into the sections of St. Mary, with a pop. of 3,056; St. Michael, with a pop. of 350; Tipton, with a pop. of 470; and Escot, with a pop. of 464, adjoined to a section of Talaton parish, with a pop.of 70. It also has a chaplain priest connected with St. Mary s church, and contains a chapel of ease at Alphington. The living of St. Mary is a vicarage, and the other livings are vicarages in the diocese of Exeter. Value of the vicarage of St. Mary, £162; * of the chaplaincy of St. Mary, £87; of the vicarage of St. Michael, £80; * of the chaplaincy of Alphington, £60; * of thevicarages of Tipton and Escot, separately noticed. Patron of the vicarage of St. Mary, the Lord Chancellor; of the chaplaincy of St. Mary, Four Governors of the Church; of the charges of St. Michael and Alphington, the Vicar. St. Michael's church was built in 1846, is in the early English style, and contains 192 sittings. Alphington church was built in 1849, and contains 120 sittings. There were ancient chapels of St. Budeaux and St. Saviour in the town, and domestic chapels at Holcombe and Knightstone.—The sub-district contains alsonine other parishes; and is in Honiton district. Acres, 32, 480. Pop., 11, 946. Houses, 2, 515. The hundred is conterminate with the parish.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, a parish, a sub-district, and a hundred"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Ottery St Mary CP/AP       Ottery St Mary Hundred       Ottery St Mary SubD       Devon AncC
Place: Ottery St Mary

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