Powderham

from

A Topographical Dictionary of England

by

 Samuel Lewis (1831)

Transcript copyright Mel Lockie (Sep 2016)

POWDERHAM, a parish in the hundred of EXMINSTER, county of DEVON, 8½ miles (S. E. by S.) from Exeter, containing 216 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Exeter, rated in the king's books at £27 3. 6½., and in the patronage of Viscount Courtenay. The church, dedicated to St. Clement, has a wooden screen, and in a window of the north aisle is the stone effigy of a lady, probably one of the Courtenays. Powderham castle and grounds are delightfully situated on an acclivity rising from the western bank of the navigable river Exe. The former, now merely retaining its castellated appearance, was, in Leland's time, a strong fort, with a barbican for the protection of Exe haven. During the parliamentary war it was fortified with eighteen pieces of ordnance, and garrisoned with three hundred men: the present drawing-room was formerly a chapel. The Belvidere tower, occupying an elevated site above the castle, commands a noble terra-marine view. The Exeter canal joins the river near this place.