Whimple

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Whimple is a village in East Devon, approximately nine miles due east of the city of Exeter, and three miles from the nearest small town, Ottery St Mary. It was listed in the Domesday Book as 'Winpla' and is centred around the largely 19th century village square and rebuilt Norman church (which W. G. Hoskins described as having little of interest 'except a few carved bench ends'). Through the square runs a small stream which is one of many local tributaries of the River Clyst, which in turn feeds into the Exe.

Whimple is large enough to support two pubs and a Church of England primary school, and was mainly notable during the 20th century for the factory producing Whiteway's cyder and pear products. Although the factory lands were sold off for housing in the 1990s, the village is still surrounded by orchards of cider apples. It is now home to the unrelated O'Hanlon's brewery.

The centre of the village is about one mile north of the old A30 road, or 1.5 miles from the new dual carriageway. Whimple railway station is on the West of England Main Line from London Waterloo to Exeter.

[edit] Wassailing

Whimple is famous for it's long tradition of wassailing which it celebrates every year on Old Twelvey Night - January 17th. For more info visit the Whimple Wassail page.

[edit] Trivia

Roy Hattersley once wrote a piece describing village life Whimple in The Guardian, which consistently misspelled it as 'Wimple'.

The Whimple Wassail song and processional tune were recorded by local folk musician Jim Causley, a native of Whimple, on his album Fruits of the Earth, a collection of traditional Devonshire and Westcountry songs, released in 2005 on WildGoose Records.