BROADCLYST

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

"BROADCLYST, (or Broad-Clist), a parish in the hundred of Cliston, in the county of Devon, 5 miles to the N.E. of Exeter. It is situated in a pleasant country, on the river Clist, and is a station on the Yeovil and Exeter branch of the London and South-Western railway. This place, with several others in the neighbourhood, was burnt by the Danes in 1001. During the civil war in the reign of Charles I., Columb-John, an old mansion, since taken down, was garrisoned for the king by its owner, Sir John Acland. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Exeter, of the value of £407, in the patronage of Sir T. D. Acland, Bart. The church, a handsome building in the perpendicular style, is dedicated to St. John the Baptist. It contains some stone stalls canopied and richly ornamented, a monument to Sir John Acland, who died in 1613, and a costly one to Edward Drewe, serjeant-at-law to Queen Elizabeth. Here are a free school with a small endowment, and almshouses for 12 persons, founded in 1605 by Mr. Burrough, and endowed with about £24 a year. The charitable endowments of the parish amount altogether to about £70 per annum. Killerton House is the seat of the Aclands. It is a modern mansion, built at the foot of a wooded hill, commanding a fine view. A chapel and gatehouse of the ancient house still remain. There were formerly several ancient chapels in this neighbourhood.

"JOHN'S COLUMB, a chapelry in the parish of Broadclyst in the county of Devon, 5 miles to the N.E. of Exeter, anciently the seat of the Acklands of Killerton.