Place:Doddiscombsleigh, Devon, England

Watchers
NameDoddiscombsleigh
Alt namesDoddiscombe Leighsource: from redirect
Doddiscombleighsource: from redirect
Doddescombe Leighsource: "ancient name"
TypeAncient parish, Civil parish
Coordinates50.667°N 3.617°W
Located inDevon, England
See alsoExminster Hundred, Devon, Englandhundred of which the parish was a part
St. Thomas Rural, Devon, Englandrural district 1894-1974
Teignbridge District, Devon, Englanddistrict municipality covering the area since 1974
the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Doddiscombsleigh (anciently Doddescombe Leigh) (#10 on map) is a small settlement in a civil parish of 2,391 acres in Devon, England.. It is 5 miles (8 km) southwest of the city of Exeter and one mile east of the River Teign and the Teign Valley.

Despite its proximity to the city, the village is difficult to find, as it is surrounded by twisting-narrow-lanes and deep valleys, tucked away in the shelter of the Haldon Hills. The village is accessed via minor roads which are predominately single track with passing places.

Geologically, the village placed on the outer perimeter of the metamorphic aureole surrounding Dartmoor. There is a fault running along the valley in the region which became heavily mineralised with metalliferous ores. This made the area well known historically for its mining activities. In Doddiscombsleigh there were many manganese workings, and the gemstone "jasper" could be found.

St. Michael's Church

The C of E parish church of St. Michael in the village is a grade I listed building. St. Michael’s contains the greatest collection of medieval stained glass to be found in situ anywhere in Devon, apart from that in the Great East Window of Exeter Cathedral. The panels in St Michael’s, which were installed circa 1480, were all produced in the 15th century by the same glazing workshop as some of the glass at Exeter Cathedral.

These panels left Exeter over five hundred years ago - around the time of the Wars of the Roses - transported out of the city during the late Middle Ages on a cart and hauled up and down the precipitous Haldon Hill, before being installed in the church for which they were made. And they remain there today, rare survivals of perhaps the most fragile of medieval art forms.

Image:St. Thomas RD complete small.png

Town Barton

"Town Barton" is the historic manor house; also known as the "Capital Messuage" or "Mansion House of Doddiscombsleigh". The current building in a 17th-century grade II listed building.

The first record of Town Barton was in the Domesday Book of 1086 when Doddiscombsleigh was known as "Terra Godeboldi" under the reign of one Godbold the Bowman. Town Barton was the Capital Barton (Manor House) for Godbold`s Domesday Estates.

This makes it one of the very rare instances of a property truly being specifically traceable to where a Doomsday owner dwelt. The manor of Doddiscombsleigh was also known as "Legh-Peverel", but the name was dropped when the manor changed hands, with a Sir Ralph Doddescomb being recorded as living in the old mansion house in the reign of Henry III (1216-1272).

Research Tips

(revised Jul 2021)

  • Ordnance Survey Map of Devonshire North and Devonshire South are large-scale maps covering the whole of Devon between them. They show the parish boundaries when Rural Districts were still in existence and before the mergers of parishes that took place in 1935 and 1974. When expanded the maps can show many of the small villages and hamlets inside the parishes. These maps are now downloadable for personal use but they can take up a lot of computer memory.
  • GENUKI has a selection of maps showing the boundaries of parishes in the 19th century. The contribution from "Know Your Place" on Devon is a huge website yet to be discovered in detail by this contributor.
  • Devon has three repositories for hands-on investigation of county records. Each has a website which holds their catalog of registers and other documents.
  • There is, however, a proviso regarding early records for Devon. Exeter was badly hit in a "blitz" during World War II and the City Library, which then held the county archives, was burnt out. About a million books and historic documents went up in smoke. While equivalent records--particularly wills--are quite easy to come by for other English counties, some records for Devon and surrounding counties do not exist.
  • Devon Family History Society Mailing address: PO Box 9, Exeter, EX2 6YP, United Kingdom. The society has branches in various parts of the county. It is the largest Family History Society in the United Kingdom. The website has a handy guide to each of the parishes in the county and publishes the registers for each of the Devon dioceses on CDs.
  • This is the home page to the GENUKI Devon website. It has been updated since 2015 and includes a lot of useful information on each parish.
  • Devon has a Online Parish Clerk (OPC) Project which can be reached through GENUKI. Only about half of the parishes have a volunteer contributing local data. For more information, consult the website, especially the list at the bottom of the homepage.
  • Magna Britannia, Volume 6 by Daniel Lysons and Samuel Lysons. A general and parochial history of the county. Originally published by T Cadell and W Davies, London, 1822, and placed online by British History Online. This is a volume of more than 500 pages of the history of Devon, parish by parish. It is 100 years older than the Victoria County Histories available for some other counties, but equally thorough in its coverage. Contains information that may have been swept under the carpet in more modern works.
  • There is a cornucopia of county resources at Devon Heritage. Topics are: Architecture, Census, Devon County, the Devonshire Regiment, Directory Listings, Education, Genealogy, History, Industry, Parish Records, People, Places, Transportation, War Memorials. There are fascinating resources you would never guess that existed from those topic titles. (NOTE: There may be problems reaching this site. One popular browser provider has put a block on it. This may be temporary, or it may be its similarity in name to the Devon Heritage Centre at Exeter.)