Stowford Contents & Search

STOWFORD is a parish and village in the valley of one of the tributary streams of the river Lyd, near the road from Okehampton to Launceston, 3 miles north-by-west from Coryton station and 3 east-by-north from Lifton station on the Launceston branch of the Great Western railway and 7 north-east from Launceston, in the South Western division of the county. Lifton hundred and petty sessional division, Tavistock union and county court district, rural deanery of Tavistock, archdeaconry of Totnes and diocese of Exeter. The church of St. John the Baptist is an edifice in the Perpendicular style, and consists of chancel, with a north aisle, separated from it by a single arch and forming an organ chamber, south aisle with arcade of two arches, nave of three bays, aisles, south porch and an embattled western tower with pinnacles, containing 6 bells, of which the first is dated 1770, the next three 1710, and the tenor 1804: the panelled oak roof is carved and illuminated, and all the windows at the east end and in the north aisle of the nave are stained: there are several elaborately executed marble altar-tombs and mural monuments, mostly of the 18th century, with effigies, medallions and inscriptions to members of the Harris family: the church was restored in 1874 at a cost of £4,225, from designs by the late Sir George Gilbert Scott R.A. when a great profusion of carved oak-work was introduced: the beautiful bench ends, pulpit and organ-case being replicas of noted examples of oak carving existing in this and the adjacent counties: there are 140 sittings. The register of baptisms and burials dates from the year 1707; marriages 1709. The living is a rectory, net yearly value £204, with residence and 55 acres of glebe, in the gift of the Rev. John Hosegood M.A. of Bournmouth, and held since 1904 by the Rev. Richard Pringle. The church is endowed with land and cottages to the value of £52 yearly, for the repairs of the fabric and for the poor of the parish. There are Bible Christian and Baptist chapels at Portgate. Haine, now (1906) unoccupied, is a noble stone building in the Tudor-Gothic style, and was formerly the seat of the Harris family. The soil is loamy; subsoil, clay and slate. The chief crops are wheat, oats, barley and pasturage. The area is 2.059 acres of land and 21 of water; rateable value, £2,320; the population in 1901 was 323.
Letters through Lew Down S.O. which is the nearest money order office, arrive at 7 a.m.; the nearest telegraph offices are at Lifton & Coryton railway stations, both 3 miles distant. Wall Letter Boxes. - Near Church, cleared at 6 p.m. week days only; & at Harris Arms, Portgate, cleared at 5.30 p.m. week days only. Public Elementary School (mixed), endowed by the late Mrs. Harris & the late Mrs. Doyle, now (1906) producing £20 17s. 8d. & £7 19s. 8d. respectively; the building was converted to its present use about 1840 having previously been the "poor house;" it was enlarged in 1873, for 64 children; average attendance 53; Walter Westcott, master; Miss Lillie Rogers, infants' mistress.

(Marked thus * receive their letters through Lifton S.O., N. Devon.)

Brian Randell, 22 Mar 2004