Beaford

Brealeys is a village in Devon, England.

Roborough is a village and civil parish 5.5 mi (8.9 km) from Great Torrington, in Devon, England. Situated topographically on the plateau between the Torridge and Taw Rivers, the parish covers 1,258 ha (3,110 acres) and contains a population of some 258 parishioners. It is surrounded by a pastoral landscape of rectangular fields, high hedges and scattered farmsteads.

Dolton is a small village and civil parish in the Torridge district of Devon, south-west England, surrounded, clockwise from the north, by Beaford, Ashreigney, Winkleigh, Dowland, Meeth, Huish and Merton. It has a population of around 900.Dolton appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Duueltone. The name may mean "farmstead in the open country frequented by doves" (Old English dūfe + feld + tūn). The Tarka Trail passes by Dolton. The parish church is dedicated to St Edmund. The historic stately home Stafford Barton is close by. Dolton is twinned with Amfreville in France, and Hillerse in Germany. Anthony Horneck FRS, the Protestant theologian, lived in Dolton between 1670 and 1671. Henry Bentinck, 11th Earl of Portland, lived at a house called Little Cudworthy and died there in 1997. Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts lived at Halsdon House near the village for some years until his death in 2021.

Dowland is a civil parish in Devon, situated near Winkleigh. It is also the name of a hamlet in the parish.

Stafford (anciently Stowford) is an historic manor in the parish of Dolton in Devon, England. The present manor house known as Stafford Barton is a grade II* listed building. A house of some form has existed on the manor probably since the Norman Conquest in the 11th century. Surviving walls can be dated to the 16th century. Many additions and renovations have taken place in the intervening years, and in the early 20th century Charles Luxmoore made many alterations and extensions and imported several major architectural features from ancient local mansions undergoing demolition so that "it has become somewhat difficult to discern its original form". In the nineteenth century the estate was very substantial, with 400 acres of associated farmland and a large staff, and by 1956, at the end of the Luxmoore tenure, it had grown to 1,460 acres with 7 farms, several cottages and smallholdings.

Barometer World was the world's only barometer museum, and was located in the village of Merton, near Great Torrington, Devon, England. Barometer World makes, sells and restores barometers of a variety of types. It was established in 1979 by Philip Collins. In March 2022, Barometer World closed its museum and premises in Merton, Devon. It is now an online-only business.

St Giles in the Wood is a village and civil parish in the Torridge district of Devon, England. The village lies about 2.5 miles east of the town of Great Torrington, and the parish, which had a population of 566 in 2001 compared with 623 in 1901, is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Huntshaw, Yarnscombe, High Bickington, Roborough, Beaford, Little Torrington and Great Torrington. Most of the Victorian terraced cottages in the village, on the east side of the church, were built by the Rolle Estate.Within the parish are several historic residences: Stevenstone (the historic seat of the Rolle family), Way Barton (home of the Pollard family), Winscott (where Tristram Risdon, author of the Survey of Devonshire, was born, c. 1580), Dodscott and Woodleigh Barton. There are also a number of hamlets including High Bullen, Healand and Kingscott (where there is a Baptist chapel dating from 1833, and a late 19th-century school), and in the south-west of the parish is the Royal Horticultural Society's Rosemoor Garden.

Huish (anciently Hiwis) is a small village, civil parish and former manor in the Torridge district of Devon, England. The eastern boundary of the parish is formed by the River Torridge and the western by the Rivers Mere and Little Mere, and it is surrounded, clockwise from the north, by the parishes of Merton, Dolton, Meeth and Petrockstowe. In 2001 the population of the parish was 49, down from 76 in 1901.The village lies just off the A386 road, about five and a half miles north of Hatherleigh, and about seven miles south of Great Torrington. It was a member of the historic hundred of Shebbear and was in the deanery of Torrington.The majority of the parish consists of parkland belonging to Heanton Satchville, the seat of Baron Clinton; the mansion-house is a few hundred yards to the north of the church.

Merton is a village, ecclesiastical parish, former manor and civil parish administered by the local government district of Torridge, Devon, England. The parish, which lies about five miles south east of the town of Great Torrington, is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Little Torrington, Beaford, Dolton, Huish, Petrockstowe and Peters Marland. In 2001 its population was 331, down from the 507 residents it had in 1901. The eastern and northern boundaries of the parish follow the loops of the River Torridge and the other sides are defined by the River Mere. The village forms part of the electoral ward of Clinton. The population at the 2011 census was 1,537.The village is on the A386 road between Meeth and Great Torrington. The parish church, on the west side of the village, is dedicated to All Saints and dates from around 1400. It suffered a heavy Victorian restoration between 1872 and 1875 by R. M. Fulford, but the east window of the north chapel retains many fragments of late medieval stained glass. Speccot, Dunsbear and Potheridge were estates mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086.

The large parish church of St Giles, which is in the village of St Giles in the Wood, Devon, England, came into being in 1309. When it was restored in 1862–3, many monuments were retained, including the monument and effigy of Thomas Chafe (d. 1648) of Dodscott, three monumental brasses, of Alenora Pollard (d. 1430), Margaret Rolle of Stevenstone (d. 1592) and a small brass of her husband John Rolle (d.1570). There are also 19th- and 20th-century monuments to the Rolle family.

Stevenstone is a former manor within the parish of St Giles in the Wood, near Great Torrington, North Devon. It was the chief seat of the Rolle family, one of the most influential and wealthy of Devon families, from c. 1524 until 1907. The Rolle estates as disclosed by the Return of Owners of Land, 1873 (corrected by Bateman, 1883) comprised 55,592 acres producing an annual gross income of £47,170, and formed the largest estate in Devon, followed by the Duke of Bedford's estate centred on Tavistock comprising 22,607 with an annual gross value of nearly £46,000.From the Glorious Revolution of 1688 to the Reform Act of 1832 the county parliamentary representatives were chosen effectively from only ten great families, mostly territorial magnates. The three most dominant of these were the Bampfyldes of Poltimore House and North Molton, the Courtenays of Powderham Castle, and the Rolles of Stevenstone and Bicton. The Rolles were not from the mediaeval aristocracy as were the Courtenays, but were descended from an able lawyer and administrator of the Tudor era, as were the Russells, later Earls and Dukes of Bedford. Both Russells and Rolles acquired much former monastic land in Devon following the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Indeed, the Rolles were in the opinion of Hoskins (1954) "second only to the Russells in the extent of their monastic and other lands and in time were to surpass them".In 1669 Sir John Rolle (died 1706), KB of Stevenstone had an annual income of £6,000 making him "one of the richest gentlemen in the country". He died in 1706 seized of more than 40 manors in Devon.The family built several different houses on the same site known as Stevenstone House, the last Victorian version of which was built between 1868 and 1872. It was significantly reduced in size soon after 1912 and then after 1931 it was gradually demolished piecemeal for building materials.