LITTLE HEMPSTON

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

"LITTLE HEMPSTON, a parish in the hundred of Haytor, county Devon, 2 miles N.E. of Totnes, its post town. The village, which is small and irregularly built, stands on the road from Exeter to Plymouth, in a valley near the river Dart and the South Devon railway. The land is chiefly arable. Limestone is quarried for burning into lime. The tithes have been commuted for a rent-charge of £200. The living is a rectory* in the diocese of Exeter, value £290, in the patronage of the crown. The church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, is a small ancient edifice with a square embattled tower. In the interior of the church are some fine windows, a carved screen, and monuments with recumbent effigies of Knight Templars. The parochial charities produce about £26 per annum. The old glebe house, supposed to have been built in the reign of Richard II., is now a farmhouse.