Place:Northam, Devon, England

:the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia Northam is a small town in Devon, England, lying immediately north of Bideford. It is thought to have been the site of an Anglo-Saxon castle, and is said to have been where Hubba the Dane attacked Devon and was repelled (perhaps by Alfred the Great or by the Earl of Devon). A little over a mile away along the coast is a village called Appledore (see below). Between the villages of Appledore and Northam, is 'Bloody Corner' where there is a rock called 'Hubba's Rock' which is supposed to be the site where Hubba the Dane was killed by the Anglo-Saxon (or Devonshire) fyrd. Northam was originally part of the Shebbear Hundred. Between 1894 and 1974 it was an urban district. Since 1974 it has been part of the Torridge district municipality. In 2011 Northam had a population of 7,489 according to the UK census of that year.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Northam from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"NORTHAM, a village, a parish, and a [registration] sub-district, in Bideford [registration] district, Devon. The village stands near the river Torridge, 1½ mile S S W of the joint influx of the Torridge and the Taw to Bideford bay, and 1¾ N by W of Bideford [railway] station; and has a post-office under Bideford. The parish contains also the hamlet of Northam-Ridge, and the village and chapelry of Appledore; and adopted the local government act in 1867. Acres: 4,190; of which 1,690 are foreshore-water. Real property: £10,096. Population: 3,687. Houses: 798.

"The property is much subdivided. The parish has great attractions as a place of residence, and contains numerous gentlemen's seats and villas. Northam Burrows is an alluvial common of about 700 acres, protected from the waves by a remarkable barrier, called the Pebble Ridge, about 1½mile long, 50 feet wide, and 20 feet high, and consisting of millstone-grit pebbles from 6 to 24 inches in diameter. The Burrows is used for the game of golf, by a young but prosperous club, with the Prince of Wales as patron; and is likely to become the most notable golfing-ground in England. A new watering-place was founded, shortly before 1867, to the westward of the Burrows, and adjoining the sea; took the name of Westward Ho! from the circumstance that the scene of Professor Kingsley's well-known work of that name is laid chiefly in the parish; and, in 1867, had already a hotel, a bath establishment, and several villas for the accommodation of lodgers.

"A submarine forest, in which flint-instruments and reindeer bones were lately found, is on the shore, near the hotel; excellent sections of a raised beach also are near; and zoophytes abound in both the rocks and the pools. The Danes, under Hubba, landed here in the time of King Alfred, and suffered a disastrous repulse. A considerable import trade in timber, an extensive coasting trade, and fishing, are carried on at Appledore; and 166 of the parishioners were absent at sea when the census was taken in 1861.

"The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Exeter. Value: £275. Patrons: the Dean and Canons of Windsor. The church is early decorated, and later English; comprises nave, N aisle, S transept, chancel, chancel-aisle, and S porch; has a W tower, of three stages, battlemented, and 96 feet high; and was recently restored. The vicarage of Appledore is a separate benefice. There are in the several parts of the parish two Independent chapels, one Baptist, three Methodist, one Brethren, and one Bethel. There are also national school, an endowed infant schools, and charities £120

"The [registration] sub-district contains likewise two other parishes. Acres: 7,198. Population: 4,460." Houses: 944.

NOTE: A second settlement named Appledore is a small village near Uffculme in Mid Devon, about 7 miles (11 kilometres) east of Tiverton.

Appledore

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Appledore is a village at the mouth of the River Torridge, about 6 miles (10 km) west of Barnstaple and about 3 miles (5 km) north of Bideford in the county of Devon, England. It is home to Appledore Shipbuilders, a lifeboat slipway and Hocking's Ice Cream, a brand of ice cream only sold in North Devon.

Appledore was situated in Northam parish and in Northam Urban District from 1894 until 1974. It is now part of the Torridge district municipality. It had a population of just over 2,100 in 2001.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Appledore from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"APPLEDORE, a seaport village and a chapelry in Northam parish, Devon. The village stands on the bay at the mouths of the rivers Torridge and Taw, 3 miles N of Bideford [railway] station; and has a head post office, designated Appledore, North Devon. It has pleasant environs, a fine bathing-beach, and good accommodation for strangers; so that it has become an esteemed watering place. It is a sub-port to Bideford; and a number of its inhabitants are engaged in the coasting trade and in dockyards.

"Hubba, the Dane, landed here in the time of King Alfred, but was taken in the neighbourhood, and put to death. The chapelry includes the village, and was constituted in 1844. Population: 2,210. Houses: 513. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Exeter. Value: £150. Patron: the Vicar of Northam. The church is a neat edifice; and there are chapels for Independents, Baptists, and Wesleyans."

NOTE: A second settlement named Appledore is a small village near Uffculme in Mid Devon, about 7 miles (11 kilometres) east of Tiverton.

Registration Districts

• Bideford Registration District (1837-1998)
• Torridge Registration District (1998-2007)
• Devon Registration District (2007- )

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.

• the Devon Heritage Centre at Exeter
• the Northern Record Office at Barnstaple
• the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office at Plymouth which is independent of the other two.

• 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.

• The FamilySearch Wiki provides a similar information service to GENUKI. An index of parishes leads to notes and references for each parish.

• Brett Langston's list of Devon Registration Districts and parishes within each registration district from 1837 to the present can indicate where to find details of civil registration entries since the process began in England.

• 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.)