Chulmleigh

The first documentary reference to the place is in the Domesday Book of 1086 where it is recorded as Calmonlevge. The name derives from the Old English personal name Ceolmund and the common place-name element leah which has various meanings including "woodland", "a woodland clearing" and "meadow". At the time of Domesday the land was held by Baldwin the Sheriff from whom it passed to the Courtenay family, who made the settlement a borough in the mid-thirteenth century. Situated on the main road between Exeter and Barnstaple, Chulmleigh thrived during the 17th and 18th centuries; it was a centre of wool production, had a good market and three cattle fairs. The wool trade had ceased by the…

The parish includes the hamlets of Cheldon, Colleton and Week. It is surrounded, clockwise from the north, by the parishes of King's Nympton, Romansleigh, Meshaw, East Worlington, Chawleigh, Wembworthy (a short border only), Ashreigney, Burrington, and Chittlehamholt. In 2001 the population of the parish was 1,308, decreasing to 1,017 at the 2011 census. An electoral ward with the same name also exists whose total population at the same census was 2,081. Because of its former prosperity the town has several fine old buildings, many constructed of cob and thatch. The parish church dedicated to StMary Magdalene was originally a collegiate church and was founded early. It was completely…