Heanton Punchardon
| Heanton Punchardon | |
 Views north across the River Taw estuary to Heanton Court, seat of the Basset family. The parish church is situated on the hill behind to the right 1796 watercolour by Rev. John Swete |
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 21st century long-lens photograph of Heanton Court from Fremington Quay |
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  Heanton Punchardon Heanton Punchardon shown within Devon | |
| Population | 2,406 2011 census[1] |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | SS5035 |
| District | North Devon |
| Shire county | Devon |
| Region | South West |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | BARNSTAPLE |
| Postcode district | EX31 |
| Police | Devon and Cornwall |
| Fire | Devon and Somerset |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| EU Parliament | South West England |
| UK Parliament | North Devon |
Heanton Punchardon is a village, civil parish and former manor, anciently part of Braunton Hundred. It is situated directly east-southeast of the village of Braunton, in North Devon. Its largest localities are Wrafton and Chivenor. The population was 418 in 1801 and 404 in 1901.[2]
History
Church
The church, dedicated to St Augustine who brought Christianity to England is for its architecture Grade I listed and has three listed monuments in its churchyard.[3] Parts date to around 750 years before the third millennium. It has a traditional tower, an embattled parapet (flat roof) with crocketted corner pinnacles, Tudor arched doorways and a five-bay arcade. Its sundial over the south porchway is dated 1795 and is by John and Thomas Berry. It falls within Barnstaple Deanery for ecclesiastical purposes.[4]
An ornate Easter Sepulchre tomb in the chancel is to Richard Coffin (1456-1523), Sheriff of Devon in 1511. The church has monuments to the Ballyman family and to the Bassett family, lords of the manor, situated in the Basset Chapel, at the east end of the north aisle, now almost fully occupied by the organ.
Descent of the manor
Basset
The manor of Heanton Punchardon was held from the 15th century to 1802 by the Basset family, formerly of Umberleigh, whose seat was Heanton Court, situated on the bank of the River Taw, 3/4 mile SE of the village. The house is now the Tarka Inn. The last of the male line was Francis Basset (c. 1740-1802), MP for Barnstaple, who died in 1802 unmarried and without progeny. This last Francis Basset appears to have been the "Colonel Basset" who was master of the North Devon Staghounds (which became in 1837 the Devon and Somerset Staghounds) from 1775 t0 1784. Confusion however arises between this Francis Basset Esq. (c. 1740-1802) of Heanton Court and his contemporary and distant cousin (from a junior branch of the family) Francis Basset, 1st Baron de Dunstanville and Basset (1757–1835), of Tehidy in Cornwall, who is stated in his History of Parliament biography to have been Lt-Col. of the North Devon Militia from 1779. Rev. John Swete (d.1821) passed by Heanton Court during his topographical tour in Spring 1796 from Barnstaple to Bideford and described the house then as "the seat of Col. Basset". He wrote of it thus: "The house exhibits itself handsomely though its situation (like that of Lord Heathfield's on the Exe) seems to be too contiguous to the water. Nearly opposite to it was a large track of marsh and sand..." He had been prevented from painting it in watercolour as was his habit during his tours, and instead later made a copy of a painting by "Mr Payne" (i.e. William Payne (1760–1830), c. 1790[5]), which copy is held by the Devon Record Office, ref 564M/F11/7.[6] Heanton Court is a Grade II Listed Building.[7]
Bassett mural monuments
The following 17th-century mural monument (one of four) exists in the Bassett Chapel in the north transept (now largely occupied by the organ) of the parish church:
The mural monument to Elizabeth Bassett (1571–1635) is situated on the east wall of the Bassett Chapel. She was one of the four daughters and co-heiresses of Sir William Peryam (1534–1604), Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, by his second wife Anne Parker, daughter of John Parker of North Molton, Devon. She married in 1591 Sir Robert Bassett (1574–1641) of Heanton Punchardon, MP for Plymouth in 1593, and bore him two sons and four daughters,[8] amongst whom was Colonel Arthur Bassett, MP, who erected the monument.
Memoriae Sacrum
Dominae Elizabethae Bassett uxori Roberti Bassett militis clarissima stirpe oriundi filiae et cohaeredi Gulielmi Peryam militis Schaccarii Regii Baronis primarii Judicic integerrimi et religiosissimi piae prudenti justae patienti modestae castae temperanti constanti hospitali misericordi beneficae pauperum matri et medicae suae familiae conservatrici. Arthurus Bassett armiger filius eius primogenit(us) debitae gratitudinis et observantiae ergo H(oc) M(onumentum) M(atri)? M(aerens) P(osuit) Anno Domini 1635 aetatis suae 64 ad Dominum remeaunt.
Should monuments goe by merit then surely thine,
With pretious stone and orient pearle should shine,
But since thy world of worth ye world doth know,
This marble stone may serve thy name to show.
"Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of them all". Psal. 34.19.
Ita in fornacem prodiit aurum
Which may be translated literally into English as:
"Sacred to the memory to [9] Lady Elizabeth Bassett wife of Robert Bassett, knight, arisen from a famous stock, daughter and co-heiress of William Peryam, knight, Lord Chief Justice of the Royal Treasury, (he was) most impartial and duty-bound, (she was) pious, prudent, just, long-suffering, modest, chaste, temperant, constant, hospitable, compassionate, kind, a mother and healer of the poor , a preserver of her own family. Arthur Bassett, Esquire, her sorrowing first-born son, of a duty of gratitude and respect therefore placed this monument to his mother in the year of Our Lord 1635 of her age 64 may she remain to the Lord...Thus does gold come forth into an oven".
Davie-Basset
The heir of Francis Basset (d.1802) was his nephew Joseph Davie Esq. of Watermouth Castle, near Lynmouth, son of John Davie of Orleigh Court, near Bideford, by his wife Eleanora Basset, Francis Basset's sister. In accordance with the terms of the inheritance, as was then usual in such cases, Joseph Davie and his descendants adopted the arms and surname of Basset in lieu of their patronymic.
Williams
A catalogue note in the Williams Estate Archive held in the North Devon Record Office under ref: B170, states: "William Williams purchased the Heanton Estate from the Bassetts in the mid nineteenth century and the family resided at Heanton Court".[10] Documents show Williams as the new owner as early as 1852 and the Comprehensive Gazetteer of England and Wales in 1894-5 stated a member of the Williams family to be lord of the manor.[11] A younger member of this family became heir to the Davie-Basset family, namely Charles Henry Williams, Esq., (who later assumed the surname Basset)) of Watermouth Castle, near Lynmouth, JP and MP for Barnstaple (1868–1874) and master of the Devon and Somerset Staghounds from 1887 to 1893. Born 16 November 1834, being the fourth surviving son of Sir William Williams, 1st Baronet (1791–1870), MFH,[12] of Tregullow, Cornwall, by his wife Caroline Eales, younger daughter of Richard Eales of Eastdon. He married on 7 January 1878, Harriet Mary Basset, only daughter of Arthur Davie Basset, Gentleman, of Watermouth Castle, and sister and co-heiress of Reverend Arthur Crawfurth Davie Basset, JP and MA, also of Watermouth. Again there had been a failure in the male Basset line. As a condition of his inheritance he assumed by Royal License in 1880 the surname of Basset in lieu of his patronymic, with the arms of Basset.
Localities
Wrafton
51°09′N 04°15′W / 51.150°N 4.250°W
Wrafton is a large hamlet narrowly separated by a small field from edge of the main local town centre, that of Braunton to the west. It is the location of Wrafton Laboratories, the division of over-the-counter preparations and contract medications producer Perrigo UK, manufacturer for Bayer UK of Germolene.[13] Perrigo bought Wrafton Laboratories in 2001.[14]
The Tarka Trail follows the course of the dismantled railway through Wrafton.
Chivenor
51°05′N 04°09′W / 51.083°N 4.150°W
Chivenor was a manor and is immediately to the south of the village, which has a considerable military personnel only housing estate.
Until 1970 the Chivenor part of the village had the first first station after the still active Barnstaple station on the now-closed Ilfracombe Branch Line.[15]
Commonwealth War Graves
Heanton Punchardon is one mile from the Chivenor and during World War II, the parish church, St. Augustine's churchyard was enlarged to accommodate a war graves plot on new ground. The churchyard contains two burials of the First World War and 85 from the Second World War. It also has 38 post-war Royal Air Force burials and one Italian war grave. In total it has 126 active military personnel graves.
Notable residents
Among those who rest in the churchyard is the poet Edward Capern (1819–1894), known as the Rural Postman (poet) of Bideford.
See also
References
- ↑ 2011 Census
- ↑ Figures for other years are available on the local studies website
- ↑ English Heritage. "Details from listed building database (1107743)". National Heritage List for England.
- ↑ The Deaneries are used to arrange the typescript Church Notes of B. F. Cresswell which are held in the Westcountry Studies Library
- ↑ Payne's watercolours of c. 1790 are published in "Payne's Devon"
- ↑ Gray, Todd & Rowe, Margery (Eds.), Travels in Georgian Devon: The Illustrated Journals of the Reverend John Swete, 1789-1800, vol.3, Tiverton, 1999, pp.95-6
- ↑ "Heanton Court Barton - Heanton Punchardon - Devon - England". British Listed Buildings. 1985-11-14. Retrieved 2012-05-17.
- ↑ History of Parliament biography of Sir Robert Bassett, MP
- ↑ Elizabeth and her complimentary adjectives are stated in the dative case "to", not the genitive "of"
- ↑ "Access to Archives". The National Archives. Retrieved 2012-05-17.
- ↑ "Heanton Punchardon, Devon genealogy heraldry and family history". Uk-genealogy.org.uk. 2011-12-18. Retrieved 2012-05-17.
- ↑ Bailys Magazine
- ↑ Who makes Germolene Antiseptic Cream?, Bayer UK, March 2001.Accessed: 27 January 2010.
- ↑ Perrigo UK History, Perrigo UK, Undated.Accessed: 27 January 2010.
- ↑ Barnstaple to Ilfracombe Railway 1874-1970, Explore Braunton project, Undated.Accessed: 27 January 2010.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Heanton Punchardon. |
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wrafton. |
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to RAF Chivenor. |
