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IN THE BEGINNING

ur geology is complex andvaried.At the heart of Devon, is the

vast volcanic boss of Dartmooraround which, geologically, the countyturns.

In the county, 300 million years ago,sand and mud of a giant delta complexwere slowly crumpled creating amountain chain to rival the Alps.Devonian rock gives Exmoor itsbackbone and cliffs which fringe thecoast from Lynton round to Barnstaple.

From Barnstaple to Hartland, geologiststell us that the countryside is underlaid

by culm measures which form bothsteep hills and undulating well-woodedcountry. The culm measures are ofsimilar age to the coal bearing rocks ofthe north country but fortunately theycontain no actual coal. Thus ourscenery remains unspoiled.

The River Torridge travels for some 50miles from its source on lonely marshyground at Woolley Moor near Hartland,wandering in a large loop to the sea atBideford Bay. It is a beautiful river,flowing for much of its course betweenwooded banks. The name ‘Torridge’ hasa Celtic Welsh origin “Terrig” meaningrough.

OUR ANCIENT HISTORY

“When Adam and Eve were dispossessedOf the garden hard by heaven,

They planted another one down in the west,Twas Devon, glorious Devon”

Sir Harold Edwin Bolton. 1902.

The River Torridge at Weare Giffard

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An ancient legend goes: “It was said thatat the beginning of time, Tamar andTorridge slept together in the caverns androcks of North Devon. Torridge woke firstand crept silently and slowly away so thatshe was well on her way before Tamarawoke. Tamar, perceiving that Torridgehad stolen a march on her, stormed afterher sister, heading for the sea by theshortest route. She raved and roared andnow and then, she swelled with anger ather sister’s perfidy, overflowing her banksand flooding the surrounding land. On andon she rushed, until before she knew whereshe was, she had been swallowed up by thesurrounding sea. Meanwhile, the patientTorridge, having had a good start, took hertime and meandered around thecountryside behind Dartmoor, affording agood water supply to the farms and villagesbefore turning again northwards to theSevern Sea at Appledore”.

Our village, Weare Giffard, straggles fortwo-and-a-half miles along the eastbank of the Torridge some three milesfrom Bideford, where the river reachesits tidal limit.

The Torridge is the reason why earlyMesolithic man was the first humancontributor to our history book, and ithas influenced the lives of humans andwild life in our parish ever since.

EARLY MAN

MEETING THE ANCESTORS

A very low tide at Westward Ho!revealed archaeological evidence thatthere had been a large organised campof late Mesolithic peoples known as‘Hunters and Gatherers’ living therearound 8000 - 6000BC..

It is believed that a foraging partytravelled along the Torridge valley,camping near Weare Giffard Crosswhere many flints found suggest aworking site. Also, they appear to havetravelled inland along the Pill atHalspill where further flints have beenfound near Little Weare Barton.

The valleys would have been denselywooded with broad-leaved trees andhunting parties would have beenhoping to kill deer and aurochs (heavywild cattle, now extinct), using theirprimitive flint implements.

Usable blades and other tools were struckfrom larger pieces and then more finely

A Mesolithic Knapper (toolmaker)shaping a flint (8000-4500BC)

A Mesolithic ‘core’, the remains fromchipping flakes from a flint found locally.

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Usable blades and other tools werestruck from larger pieces of flint andthen more finely worked to create toolsor weapons such as cutting blades,scraping tools, awls and arrowheads.Many waste flakes were left by thisprocess. A core was a pre-preparedpiece from which the desired size andshape could be struck as needed.

It was the ability to make, rather thanmerely use tools that distinguishedearly man from his fellow primates.One must remember that the flint andother stone implements are the solememorial to thousands of generations

of men.

Late Mesolithic Flintsfound near Little Weare Barton,

Weare Giffard

Crop Mark Site at Little Weare Barton(See page 8)

According to the County Archaelogist:-

“This Crop Mark shows a double ditchenclosure; the inner one being 60 x40 m;and the outer circle 105 x 100m. Theaerial photo was taken in 1984 and the siteis not visible on the ground. It is interestingto note that the Tythe Map of 1837 notesthe NE field as “HILLY FIELD” whichmay have indicated visible existing earthworks at that date or earlier”.

He goes on to say:

“ Putting a date to such sites is quite trickywithout archaeological excava-tion orsurface finds - such as scatters of pottery.However, where excavations have takenplace such settlement enclosures tend tofall into the Late Prehistoric ( later BronzeAge and Iron Age) or Romano-Britishperiod.”

Editorial: This would put a range ofsome 5-700 years plus, and it isinteresting to note that excavations atMorchard Bishop in 1988 on a similarlooking crop mark, produced ceramicsfrom the second half of the 1st CenturyAD i.e. Romano-British.

�CELTIC BRITAIN

The Celts were the first inhabitants toattain a high level of civilisation andoriginated from the region around theCaspian Sea. They entered Britain intwo waves - the Gaels (1800BC)introduced the Bronze Age, and theBritons (600BC) introduced the IronAge and established themselves in theSouth.

Berry Castle Camp

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Evidence of the Iron Age near thevillage can be found at Berry Castle atHuntshaw. Nicholas Pevsner writes:“it is situated in a plantation above

Hunshaw Mill Bridge, being a spurr-sitedIron Age defensive work”;and in The History of Devonshire, theBerry Castle camp is described as 500ftlong x 250ft wide, with two properentrances - and a mock entrance intowhich marauding folk rushed, only tobe trapped by a 3ft ditch and a 6ft bank.

The Celts cremated their dead andinterred the ashes under Barrows.Professor Hoskins describes a roundBarrow at Huntshaw which, whenexcavated, produced a grooved daggerof the Wessex type.

Throughout the Celtic Age,civilisation made rapid strides and ahigh degree of culture was attained.

Around 55BC, the Roman invasionwas underway and the country emergedfrom, ‘prehistory’ to ‘history’, havingtaken a full half-millennium tocomplete.

THE ROMANS

A brief punitive expedition to Britainled by Julius Caesar in 55BC, wasrecalled to Rome by order of theEmperor Claudius. However, the laterreal conquest was met by fierceresistance from the hill tribes.Nevertheless, the invasion wascomplete by 85AD.

North Devon was of secondary interestto the invading Roman armies. Thehilly country with thick oak forests anddamp blustery weather did not presentan ideal territory in which to implant

Latin culture. Thus, their impact onthe inhabitants was fairly small.

The nearest evidence of Romanexistence to the village is theidentification of a temporary camp siteat Alverdiscott. Some coinage found atBideford suggests that at times, theRoman invaders were a real presence inremote areas.

Britain was severed from the RomanEmpire by 410AD and there iscomparatively little evidence here ofthree centuries of Roman rule. The oldCeltic life reasserted itself until thecoming of the Saxons.

SAXON TIMES

Devon was very thinly peopledbetween the arrival of the Romans andSaxon times. The Saxons were ofGermanic origin from around the riverElbe. They set about the conquest ofDevon about 614AD, enslaving theCelts and driving them westward.Slowly however, they became peacefulfarmers and established the first‘English’ race - hence Anglo-Saxon.The coming of the Christian Churchmade rapid improvements tocivilisation, bringing civil governmentsystems of law and justice andencouraging learning of literature,music and craftmanship. Agriculturebecame the mainstay, the peoplegrowing wheat, oats and barley, andrearing pigs and sheep under a system ofvillage enterprise. Any manufacturewas domestic, being spinning,shoemaking, weaving and carpentry.

The 7th and 8th centuries saw a longstruggle between the Anglo-Saxonsand the Vikings from Denmark. TheDanes practised piracy and were lured

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Earliest references in the Anglo-SaxonChronicles of 815AD recorded that “abloody battle of great slaughter” wasfought by men of Defenascir against aheathen army. The men of Defenascirwon a great victory. In 823, theChronicle speaks of the men of Devonas ‘Defenas’. The name ‘Devon’ isderived from a Celtic tribal wordmeaning ‘people of the land’. Both themodern forms, Devon and Devonshireare equally ancient.A process appearing about 940AD and

completed in mid-Saxon times, was thedivision of a Shire into “Hundreds” -originally an area of land capable ofsupporting around 100 families. EachHundred held a court and wasresponsible for the collection of tithesand taxes; and for the maintenance ofpeace and order.Weare Giffard was in the Hundred ofShebbear.The Anglo-Saxons had created one ofthe great civilisations of the Dark Ages.

Weare Giffard•

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1066 AND ALL THAT!

Edward the Confessor died in 1066 andthis precipitated an attack from Franceby the Normans. Edward was of theoldest pedigree in Europe, being from adynasty which claimed to be descendedfrom a warrior, Cerdic, who is believedto have led a band of Anglo-Saxonraiders into the Solent around 500AD.

Five centuries of Anglo-Saxon rule hadsucceeded in establishing a unifiedculture with sophisticated forms oftaxation, coinage and chancery with astandardised language.

In the 11th century, England was notonly old but wealthy - many times moreso than the Norman invaders. Thechief wealth emanated from wool, andit was this richness which attracted theNormans; leading to an invasion led byWilliam the Conqueror. Following thedefeat of the Anglo-Saxons at theBattle of Hastings, there were hardtimes with hunger, pestilence anddevastation. The population wasmarked for generations by fire andsword.

The new King William saw his ownneeds as paramount. He had tomaintain large armies with supplies andpay, in order to keep the English insubjection, to subdue the Welsh andScots and to fight French and Bretonarmies.

William’s solution to his problems isrecorded in the Anglo-SaxonChronicle of 1086:

“The king had much thought and deepdiscussion with his council. Then he senthis men over all England, into every shire.Thus, he found out: how many hundredhides there were in any shire; what land orcattle the king himself had; and, what

dues he ought to receive from each shire.DOMESDAY BOOK -The Great Survey of 1086

Translation of the Domesday Book

The Exon Domesday Book

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Also, he had a record made of how muchland was held by the archbishops, bishops,abbots and earls, as well as the worth ofeveryone’s land etc..

So very strictly did he have it investigatedthat ‘no single hide, yard of land, ox, cowor pig was left out’” .

The Domesday Book was created.

This is the first documented evidenceof our area. The Book was written inLatin and translated two centuries later.The so-called Exon Domesday lies inthe Library of Exeter Cathedral and arethe detailed returns of the South-Westof England. It is one of the greattreasures of English History.

When the Domesday Book wascompiled, there were only four towns inDevon: Exeter, Barnstaple, Totnes andLydford. The population of NorthDevon was 5 - 10 people per squaremile.

ROALD, a Breton, appears to havesettled in Devon. He held 32 manors“in capite” (direct grant from theCrown). This amounted to 17,000acres.He relinquished his titles to become amonk prior to 1104.(Glossary of Exon Domesday byMichael Wood)The Norman Conquest was the lastintrusion into British culture.

�THE PLANTAGENETS 1154 -1485

This was an age of immense economicchange with the spread of settlements

and cultivated areas. The following arethe main changes of the time:

New farms appeared with colonisationof large areas; weekly markets arose, thenearest to Weare Giffard being atTorrington in the 12th century; ruralManors hoped to reap substantialbenefits from road tolls and burgagerents on markets and fairs; PlantagenetKnights of the Shire sat fortnightly,dealing out justice ‘as they saw it inthose days’, and as the growing numberof laws directed.

The importance of the Hundredsdeclined and today they are representedby District Councils.

The cloth industry began to thrive withworkers weaving in their homes andtaking the finished cloth to the fullingmills which appeared along thenumerous small streams. The cloth wascleaned, shrunk and thickened inwater.In Devon, fulling was known astucking, thus a tucker - hence thecommon Devon surname.

The 12th and 13th centuries were alsothe great age of church building. Thefont in the village church is in 12thcentury style with Norman Capitalsand three scallops on each underside.

The Black Death was a commondisease throughout the next threecenturies and the Plague of 1348devastated the county with half thepopulation succumbing. This caused ashortage of labour and marked thebeginning of the end of serfdom.

Medieval society was dominated bygreat Lords whose power and wealthcreated manor houses and castles.

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TUDOR TIMES 1485 - 1603

15th century society was violent andlawless; and discontent was beginningto affect life.

The Devon Lay Subsidy Roll (seeappendix) is available for 1524. TheReturn shows that John Southcott wasthe major landowner with 33 names inall on the roll. Together they paid a taxestimated at £2.13.6d (£2.67p). Taxeswere paid to the Crown, as Henry VIIIobjected to paying large revenues toRome.

The separation from Rome led to thebible being printed in English; and thedissolution of the monasteries in 1536led to the introduction of the Poor Law.This made parishes responsible for theirown poor.

Locally, glovemaking in Torringtonbegan and many villagers worked in thetrade. Shipbuilding was also importanton the Torridge estuary.

During the reign of Elizabeth I, aMuster Roll was compiled, (seeappendix). This was a list of able-bodied men in each parish who couldtake up arms to serve Queen andCountry. The Queen was anxious todefend her kingdom from possibleattempts to restore the CatholicChurch, but in fact, no major battlestook place and the inhabitants ofWeare Giffard were called upon to dolittle, if anything.

In 1589 to 1591, the plague returnedand a total of seven people per yearwere buried at Weare Giffard whereasusually only two died per year. Isolationfrom traffic routes probably helped tocontain the spread of this highlyinfectious and usually fatal disease. The

village suffered the plague again in1714 - 1715, when twenty people wereburied.A silver half-groat was found recentlyin the Glebe field. It had been mintedin the reign of Elizabeth I and wasworth 2d.

Charles I came to the throne in 1625and with the onset of the troublesbetween Crown and State, the CivilWar began in 1642.

A silver half-groat found inWeare Giffard. Minted during the reign

of Elizabeth I (1558-1603)