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- the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia
Kenton (#19 on map) is a village and civil parish located near Exeter, the county town of Devon, England. It is near Powderham Castle. The population of the village, according to the 2011 UK census, was 1,005.
The centre of the village was rebuilt in brick immediately after a fire on 16 April 1856 which destroyed 24 dwellings.
The 14th-century All Saints Church is built of red sandstone with arcades of Beer stone. John Betjeman judged it to be "the full-aisled Devon plan at its best", with a "handsome" tower, and praised the rood screen, which retains ancient colour, and the figure-paintings. The pulpit is medieval; the reredos is by Charles Eamer Kempe. The tower clock was installed in 1900. The adjacent almshouses were built in 1875.
Starcross
Starcross is a village within the parish of Kenton situated on the west shore of the Exe Estuary in the Teignbridge District. The population according to the 2011 UK census was 1,737.
For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Starcross.
The following description from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72 is provided by the website A Vision of Britain Through Time (University of Portsmouth Department of Geography).
- "KENTON, a village, a parish, and a [registration] sub-district, in St. Thomas [registration] district, Devon. The village stands in the valley of the Kenn, 1 mile W of the estuary of the Exe, 1½ mile NW of Starcross [railway] station, and 6½ SSE of Exeter; was once a market town; and has a post office under Exeter, and a pleasure fair on Whit-Wednesday.
- "The parish contains also the village of Starcross. Acres: 6,811; of which 930 are water. Population: 1,961. Houses: 424. The property is divided among a few. The manor belonged formerly to the Heles, the Hungerfords, the Duke of Albemarle, and others; and belongs now to the Earl of Devon. Oxton House is the seat of J. B. Swete, Esq. Great Haldon hill extends along the W [Kenn?]; and a tract called Cuttridge, with a population of 20, lies detached.
- "The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Exeter. Value: £265. Patrons: the Dean and Chapter of Salisbury. The church is of the time of Edward III.; comprises nave, aisle, and chancel, with pinnacled tower; and contains a very beautiful screen. The chapelries of Starcross and Cofton are separate benefices. There are national schools, and charities £16."
NOTE: Cofton is in the parish of West Dawlish, to the south.
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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.
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- 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.
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- 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.)
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