Hide
hide
Hide

Dodbrooke

from

A Topographical Dictionary of England

by

 Samuel Lewis (1831)

Transcript copyright Mel Lockie (Sep 2016)

DODBROKE, a market-town and parish in thehundred of COLERIDGE, county of DEVON, ½ a mile (E.)from Kingsbridge, containing 885 inhabitants. Thisplace derives its name from the Dod, a small stream bywhich it is separated from the town of Kingsbridge;it is a place of some antiquity, and in the timeof Edward the Confessor was the property of Brietrie,sheriff for the county. It obtained, in the reignof Henry III., the grant of a weekly market, and anannual fair for two days on the festival of St. MaryMagdalene. The town, situated on the declivity of ahill, is indifferently built, but well supplied with water:it is noted for its white ale, a beverage peculiar to thispart of Devonshire, which is ready for use on the dayafter it is brewed, and in this parish is subject to tithe,in lieu of which, the rector receives a commutation often-pence from each inn-keeper. The market, formerlyheld regularly, is now held only on the third Wednesdayin every month; there is a cattle fair on the Wednesdaybefore Palm-Sunday. The living is a discharged rectory,in the archdeaconry of Totness, and diocese ofExeter, rated in the king's books at £8. 11. 4., and inthe patronage of the Rev. Dr. Owen. The church, dedicatedto St. Thomas à Becket, is built on rising ground,at the extremity of the town; it is an ancient structure,strengthened with buttresses, and embattled, and containsan ancient stone font in the early English style,and a wooden screen finely carved. Dr. Wolcott, thesatirical poet, more generally known by the assumedname of Peter Pindar, was a native of this place.