SAMPFORD-COURTNEY

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

"SAMPFORD-COURTNEY, a parish in the hundred of Black Torrington, county Devon, 2 miles from North Tawton, and 5 N.E. of Okehampton. The village, which is extensive, is situated on the road to Bude. The parish contains the villages of Swilly and Corscombe, and the chapelry of Sticklepath, which, in the reign of Henry V., was a separate parish. At Brightley in this parish are traces of a Cistercian abbey, founded in 1136 by Richard Fitz-Baldwin de Brionies, which was afterwards removed to Ford. At the time of the Reformation this place was the scene of a serious rising under Humphrey Arundell in 1549. The Forest of Dartmoor joins the parish of Dartmoor on the S. The lower grounds are watered by the river Taw and its tributary streams. About half the land is arable, a third moorland, and the remainder pasture, orchard, and woodland. The soil is generally a red loam, alternating with a stiff clay. A copper mine was opened near Sticklepath, but has been abandoned. The living is a rectory* with the curacy of Sticklepath annexed, in the diocese of Exeter, value £510, in the patronage of King's College, Cambridge. The church is dedicated to St. Andrew. The parochial charities produce about £6 per annum."

"CORSCOMBE, a hamlet in the parish of Sampford Courtney, in the county of Devon, 5 miles N.E. of Okehampton."

"STICKLEPATH, a village in the parish of Sampford Courtney, county Devon, 4 miles N.E. of Okehampton."

"WILLEY, a hamlet in the parish of Sampford Courtney, county Devon, 4 miles N.E. of Okehampton."