FREMINGTON

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)]

"FREMINGTON, a parish in the hundred of the same name, county Devon, 3 miles S.W. of Barnstaple, its post town, and 6 N.E. of Bideford. It is situated on the river Taw, and was anciently a parliamentary borough, returning two members to parliament in the reign of Edward III. Here are stone-quarries. Pipe-clay is also obtained, and many of the people are employed in the salmon fishery. The village is situated on the shore of Barnstaple Bay, at the estuary of the river Taw, called Fremington Pill, where coal barges deliver their cargoes, and merchant vessels frequently wait for the spring tides. In the vicinity are numerous villas. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Exeter, of the value of £373. The church is dedicated to St. Peter, and is an ancient edifice. It contains several monuments of the Barber family. The endowments of the parish, including £63 for lecture and scholarship, bequeathed by John Doddridge in 1650, realise about £86 per annum. There is an almshouse for twelve widows, built by Charles Roberts. The Baptists, Independents, and Wesleyan Methodists have chapels. There is a parochial school."