Parracombe

Parracombe is a very small village near Lynton, in Devon, England. It is situated in the Heddon Valley, a fold of Exmoor, which rises to 1,575 ft. at the South East end of the parish.

There are barrows on Parracombe Common, probably from the Bronze Age, and a number of other small earth-works dotted about the parish. Also close by are Beacon Castle and Voley Castle both Iron Age Hill forts. Nearby Rowley Barton ("rough clearing") was a manor mentioned in the Domesday Book as were East and West Middleton.

Holwell Castle, at Parracombe was a Norman motte and bailey castle built to guard the junction of the east–west and north–south trade routes,cite web |url=http://www.exmoorselfcatering.co.uk/_H/Holwell_Castle.php |title=Holwell Castle |accessdate=2008-01-03 |format= |work=Everything Exmoor ] enabling movement of people and goods and the growth of the population.cite web |url=http://www.holidayexmoor.co.uk/exmoor-history.htm |title=Ancient Exmoor |accessdate=2007-11-29 |format= |work=Holiday Exmoor ] Alternative explanations for its construction suggest it may have been constructed to obtain taxes at the River Heddon bridging place, or to protect and supervise silver mining in the area around Combe Martin. [cite web |url=http://www.ndas.org.uk/holwellcastel.htm |title=Holwell Castle |accessdate=2008-01-03 |format= |work=North Devon Archaeological Society ] It was convert|131|ft|m|0 in diameter and convert|20|ft|m|0 high above the bottom of a rock cut ditch which is convert|9|ft|m|0 deep. [cite web |url=http://homepage.mac.com/philipdavis/English%20sites/862.html |title=Holwell Castle, Parracombe |accessdate=2008-01-03 |format= |work=The Gatehouse ] It was built, in the late 11th or early 12th century, of earth with timber palisades for defense and a one or two story wooden dwelling. It was probably built by either Martin de Tours, the first lord of Parracombe, William de Falaise (who married Martin's widow) or Robert FitzMartin, although there are no written records to validate this.

The parish is chiefly remarkable for its old church, which stands on the moorside high above the village. It was proposed to pull it down in the 1870s, but an agitation, in which John Ruskin played a leading part, saved it from destruction. A new church was built down in the village in 1878, and the old church, which has a completely unspoiled Georgian interior, is now used only occasionally in summer. It is dedicated to St Petrock and is undoubtedly a very ancient foundation, but the present building is largely the result of an early 16th-century reconstruction. The chancel, however, was not rebuilt at this date, but is early 13th-century work; so, too, is the lower part of the small, square West Tower. The interior is plastered and whitewashed; everything is irregular, leaning in different directions. There are 18th-century box pews; an 18th-century screen with a wooden tympanum above it; a Georgian pulpit; and a number of early 16th-century benches also survive. At the back of the church is the musicians' gallery. On the walls are the wooden hat-pegs of the Georgian church, and oval plaques inscribed with suitable texts, such as "Let all things be done decently and in order." There are mural tablets to the old yeoman family of Lock (1667–1803) who still farm in the parish. All the roofs are ceiled and whitewashed.

Until 1935 the village was served by a halt on the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway which ran close to the centre of the settlement.

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