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WOODBURY

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

"WOODBURY, a parish in the E. division of Budleigh hundred, county Devon, 3 miles S.E. of Topsham, 7 S.E. of Exeter, and 5 N.E. of Exmouth. At Woodbury Road is a station on the Exeter and Exmouth branch of the London and South-Western railway. It is a large village, or rather decayed market town, situated on the estuary of the navigable river Exe, which bounds the parish on the W. Petty sessions are held here every alternate Thursday. The population in 1861 was 1,966. Overlooking the village is an ancient earthwork, called Woodbury Castle, being an irregular double-ditched camp of British origin, on the summit of Woodbury common, from whence is a view of the valleys of the Exe and Otter. The parish includes the chapelry of Woodbury Salterton, recently constituted a separate ecclesiastical district, and the hamlets of Ebford, Exton, Grindle, Gulliford, Nutwell, and Woodmanton. There are several seats, as Nutwell Court, Upper Nutwell, and Ebford Barton. The living is a perpetual curacy* in the diocese of Exeter, value £150, in the patronage of the Vicars Choral of Exeter cathedral. The church, dedicated to St. Swithin, contains monuments to the Prideaux and Pollexfen families, and the matrix of an ancient brass to the Haydons. There is besides a small church entirely free, built by subscription in 1851. The Unitarians have a chapel at Gulliford. There are National and endowed schools for both sexes. A pleasure fair is held on Whit-Wednesday. The Hon. T. Rolle is lord of the manor."

"SALTERTON, an ecclesiastical district in the parish of Woodbury, hundred of Wonford, county Devon, 3 miles E. of Topsham, and 6 S.E. of Exeter, near the confluence of the rivers Clyst and Exe. The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Exeter, value £133. The church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, is a modern edifice."

"WOODBURY-SALTERTON, an ecclesiastical district, formerly a chapelry in the parish of Woodbury, county Devon, 6 miles S.E. of Exeter, and 4 from Topsham. The ecclesiastical district, which has a population of 498, comprises portions of the parishes of Woodbury, Colaton-Raleigh, and Aylesbeare consolidated. The church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was built in 1844, at the cost of Miss M. Pidsley, of Greendale. There are also free schools, built and endowed by the same lady in 1846."

Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003