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Widecombe Charters from the British Library

The PDF document below contains transcriptions and translations of some of the old charters found in the British Library collections. They were originally at the British Museum. They have primarily been selected because they identify local places and some local names.

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Reader Comments

From David Thomas (September 2023):

Interesting book and good directions to other sources.  More than worth the price.  

Not mentioned in your bibliography (though I think the Widecombe Archive have a paper copy), you may be interested in An Archaeological Survey of Enclosed Land in Widecombe-in-the-Moor Parish by M M R Beeson and C H Masterman - Devon Committee for Rescue Archaeology Publication number 7.  

In view of your understandable focus on Dunstone, you may be interested to know that the 1897-9 History, Gazetteer and Directory of the County of Devon by William White lists - Thomas Hern, farmer, Lower Dunstone; Richard Mann, farmer, Great Dunstone; George Nosworthy, farmer, Lower Dunstone; William Roberts, carpenter, Higher Dunstone; Elias Smerdon, Dunstone Cottage; Townsend Daniel, boot and shoe maker, Higher Dunstone.

It seems that records of my own property on Natsworthy go back to c1250, though the current house was originally late medieval (according to the listing) or 16th century (according to Gawne and Sanders) - much modified since.

[Author's note: Thanks David, your comments are much appreciated. I have added the Beeson and Masterman work to the Supplementary Bibliography above. This is an extremely informative read. Also, I might add some details of local properties and their histories as a separate page on this site.]

From Legendary Dartmoor (extract from book review - September 2023):

Widecombe’s Ancient Landscape takes the reader on a journey through time and through the landscape around the Widecombe-in-the-Moor area.  Starting from when the prehistoric hunter gatherers led their nomadic ways of life and on to medieval and post medieval times. If you would like a true example of a Dartmoor palimpsest then one can be found in this book. Within the 160 pages are three main parts which are then subdivided into various aspects of the Widecombe landscape. These include twenty three topics ranging from the early prehistoric landscape furniture, the geographical features, the industrial archaeology, the flora and fauna, the various manor and their bounds, early religious connections and land ownership. The book is full of numerous photographs, OS map extracts, digital mapping, diagrams and early document extracts all of which add to the narrative and bring it alive. If ever they was something to encourage people to get out and explore Dartmoor for themselves then it must be this book.

I can thoroughly recommend purchasing “Widecombe’s Ancient Landscape” for an informative and enjoyable read and it's a book that surely must have a place in any Dartmoor library whilst also appealing to those visiting the area and those further afield. If I have but one small suggestion to make it would possibly be the inclusion and etymology of the old evocative placenames to be found in the area. Roger also has an excellent website which also contains some fascinating information about the book.

Source: https://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/2023/09/07/widecombes-landscape/

[Author's note: Many thanks for this kind review. I will try to cover place-name etymology in a future work.]