Culmstock is a village and civil parish in Mid Devon, England, centred 10 miles from Tiverton and 6 NE of Cullompton. It is laid out on both sides of the River Culm; the village is joined by a single old narrow stone bridge across the river. The population of the parish at the 2011 Census was 554.[1] The northern boundary of the parish forms part of the Devon – Somerset border and clockwise from there it is surrounded by the Devon parishes of Hemyock, Uffculme, Burlescombe and Holcombe Rogus.[2]
Historically, in minor matters of law and taxation, Culmstock contributed to Hemyock Hundred. It saw prosperity as a centre of weaving and the wool trade, but this prosperity, and the relative population to that nationally, declined considerably in the latter part of the Industrial Revolution.[3] The population was around 1446 for the forty years before the 1841 census but fell in the next 40 years to 863. In 1961 after a non-linear descent, the population was 692, broadly similar to today's total.[citation needed]
Notable people connected with village
editR.D. Blackmore, the author of Lorna Doone, lived in Culmstock for six years while his father, John Blackmore, was curate-in-charge of the parish, and he based his novel Perlycross on the Culm Valley.[4]
Octavius Temple, father of Frederick Temple and grandfather of William Temple (both Archbishops of Canterbury),[5] purchased Axon Farm, near the settlement. Octavius went to be Governor of Sierra Leone, where he died in 1834.[6] The family had, however, remained at Culmstock. Blundell's School at Tiverton hosted the boarding years of the latter childhood of Frederick.
Harold Sumption (1916-1998), an English advertising executive and fundraiser, was born in Culmstock.[7]
Transport
editThe village was served by a station on the Culm Valley Light Railway, which connected to one of two main lines leaving the south-west peninsula, at Tiverton Junction. The Light Railway ran from 1876 to 1975, though the last passengers were carried in 1963.[citation needed]
References
edit- ^ "Parish population 2011". Retrieved 23 February 2015.
- ^ "Map of Devon Parishes" (PDF). Devon County Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 November 2013. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
- ^ "Culmstock". Devon County Council. Archived from the original on 14 December 2013. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
- ^ Blackmore, David. "The Five Lives of R. D. Blackmore". The Victorian Web. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
- ^ Stephens, Henry Morse (1898). . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 56. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 53.
- ^ Stephens, Henry Morse (1912). . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 488.
- ^ Sumption, Harold (1995). Yesterday's Trail-Blazing and Pointers for Tomorrow. Harold Sumption remembers... Hertford: Brainstorm Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0952695804.