St Giles in the Wood Contents & Search

ST. GILES-IN-THE-WOOD, or Stow St. Giles, a parish and pleasant village 3 miles E. by S. of Great Torrington, is in Torrington union and county court district, Great Torrington petty sessional division, Fremington hundred, Barnstaple archdeaconry, and Torrington rural deanery. The rateable value is £3353 10s. It had 906 inhabitants in 1881, and comprises 4827 acres of land. The parish includes the hamlets of Kingscott, High Bullen, Dodscott, and Heland. A great part of it is in the manor of Stevenstone, which belongs to the Hon. Mark G. K. Rolle. He resides at STEVENSTONE HOUSE, which was almost entirely rebuilt and enlarged in 1868-72. It is in the Victorian style of architecture, and stands in a park of about 370 acres, which is well stocked with deer, and contains fine timber. The Hon. Mark Rolle also owns the manor of Winscott, once held by Risdon the antiquary. Way Barton belongs to the Rev. C. W. Furse. Stevenstone is lighted with gas from works erected in 1873. Many good cottages have been erected during the last ten years, thus much improving the village. The CHURCH (St. Giles the Hermit) built in 1309 as a chapel to Torrington, and now consisting of nave, chancel, aisles, transepts, and tower containing six bells and a clock, was restored, in 1862, by the Hon. Mark Rolle, at a cost of £2000. Several of the windows are enriched with stained glass. A new stained-glass window has recently been put in the church by Mr. Robt. Vodden (churchwarden) to the memory of his wife and son. A very handsome new pulpit of Devonshire marble and alabaster has recently been erected, also a low screen of stone and marble with brass lectern fixed thereon, new oak stalls and benches for the clergy and choir in the chancel, the floor of which is elaborately paved with encaustic tiles, and the roof, including the sanctuary, handsomely painted with figures of saints and angels. There are also new brass altar rails, the whole being the gift of the Hon. Mark and Lady Gertrude Rolle. In the church are handsome monuments to the memory of various members of the Rolle, Risdon, and other old Devonshire families. The lych gate was erected by the patron in 1877. Register dates from 1555. The benefice is a vicarage valued at £126, in the patronage of the Hon. Mark Rolle, and incumbency of the Rev. H. J. Wilmot Buxton, who has a good parsonage house at Kingscott. The Dean and Chapter of Christ Church College, Oxford are appropriators of the tithes, which are commuted at £479. There is a glebe of 29 acres. The BAPTISTS have a chapel at Kingscott, and the WESLEYANS one in the village; the latter was erected in 1854 (in lieu of one built in 1833), at a cost of £150; it will seat 130 persons, and contains a good organ. The NATIONAL SCHOOL, with teacher's residence, was erected in 1860 by Mr. Rolle, and is attended by 220 children. A new class-room was added in 1884, at the expense of the Hon. Mark Rolle. In the village is a READING ROOM, also provided by Mr. Rolle, established about 1870, which is well supplied with newspapers, and has a library of 220 volumes; there are about 55 members, and Mr. William Knott is the secretary. Here are four Almshouses, founded by Sir Henry Rolle, and endowed with £5 a year. The parish has several tenements for the poor, and a cottage for the schoolmaster, and apartments for the assistant mistress, provided by the Hon. Mark Rolle. The poor have the interest of £200, give by various donors, and an annuity of 10s., left by Charles Beer.
       POST OFFICE at Mr. Walter Trick's. Letters arrive at 8.25 a.m. and are despatched at 5.40 p.m. to Torrington, which is the nearest Money Order and Telegraph Office and Railway Station. There is a WALL LETTER BOX at Kingscott, cleared at 5.25 p.m week days only.

Last updated - Brian Randell, 12 Jun 206