Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for BERRY-POMEROY

BERRY-POMEROY, a village and a parish in Totnes district, Devon. The village stands 1¾ mile E by N of Totnes r. station. The parish includes also Bridgetown, a suburb of Totnes, on the river Dart; and its Post Town is Totnes. Acres, 4,525. Real property, £8,996. Pop., 1,065. Houses, 222. The property, with small exception, belongs all to the Duke of Somerset. Berry Pomeroy Castle, on a rock, in a beautiful dell, surrounded with wooded heights, in the neighbourhood the village, was built by Ralph de Pomeroy, a follower of the Conqueror; inhabited by his descendants till 1549; conveyed then to Protector Somerset; enlarged soon after, with magnificent additions, at a cost of upwards of £20,000; inhabited, for the last time, by Sir Edward Seymour, in the time of James II.; and traditionally said to have been destroyed by lightning. The ivy mantled walls of it, the great gateway, a round tower, a Tudor front of Protector Somerset's addition, and part of a Jacobean court of the time of Charles I., are still standing, shattered and unroofed; and form, with the accompaniments of the dell and the woods, a very romantic object. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Exeter. Value, £360.-Patron, the Duke of Somerset. The church is an ancient structure of nave, chancel, and aisles; and contains a handsome screen and tombs of the Seymours. John Prince, author of the "Worthies of Devon," was vicar for 42 years, and lies interred in the church.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Berry Pomeroy CP/AP       Totnes RegD/PLU       Devon AncC
Place: Berry Pomeroy

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