Dunchideock ( , ) is a small

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

on the north eastern slopes of the

Haldon Hills The Haldon Hills, usually known simply as Haldon, is a ridge of high ground in Devon, England. It is situated between the River Exe and the River Teign and runs northwards from Teignmouth, on the coast, for about until it dwindles away north ...

Teignbridge Teignbridge is a local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based in the town of Newton Abbot. The district also includes the towns of Ashburton, Buckfastleigh, Dawlish, Kingsteignton and Teignmouth, along with numerous vi ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

, England. It covers an area of and lies about south-west of

Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...

and north-east of Bovey Tracey. The parish, with a population of 262 in 2001, lacks a compact village, but consists of scattered dwellings. It is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Holcombe Burnell, Ide, Shillingford St. George, Kenn, and Doddiscombsleigh.

Etymology

The name ''Dunchideock'' originates in the

Common Brittonic Common Brittonic (; ; ), also known as British, Common Brythonic, or Proto-Brittonic, is a Celtic language historically spoken in Britain and Brittany from which evolved the later and modern Brittonic languages. It is a form of Insular Cel ...

language. First attested in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086 as ''Donsedoc'', the first part of the name derives from the word whose modern Welsh form is ("fort"), while the second part is the adjective found in modern Welsh as ("wooded"). The form of the ''Dun''-element later changed by association with the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

word ("hill"). According to W. G. Hoskins, the place-name originally referred to the nearby Iron Age hill fort of Cotley Castle.

History

The parish church is dedicated to St Michael and is

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. It originated in 1308 at the latest, but the present church building, built of red sandstone, was started in the late 14th century. It has been partially rebuilt and restored many times. There is a good font dated to around 1400, some notable carved bench-ends, roof-bosses and rood-screen; and several memorials, most notably to

Aaron Baker Aaron Eli Baker (1610–1683) of Bowhay in the parish of Exminster, near Exeter, Devon, was an English colonial agent of the Honourable East India Company, who served as the first President of the Madras Presidency (1652-1655). He was for the ...

, who rebuilt the chancel aisle in 1669, and Stringer Lawrence. The theological writer Bourchier Wrey Savile was rector of Dunchideock with Shillingford St. George from 1872 to his death in 1888. Within the parish was the former Haldon House which was the home of Sir Robert Palk, 1st Baronet. Mostly demolished in the 1920s, the remaining wing is now the

Best Western Best Western International, Inc. owns the Best Western Hotels & Resorts brand, which it licenses to over 4,700 hotels worldwide. The franchise, with its corporate headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, includes more than 2,000 hotels in North America. ...

"Lord Haldon Hotel". Also in the parish is Haldon Belvedere, a triangular tower on top of Haldon that was built by Palk in 1788 in memory of his friend General Stringer Lawrence. Archie Winckworth, the former owner of Dunchideock House, posted a memoir about the village and its history, including an account of its buried treasure. The cellars of Dunchideock House are fancifully supposed to contain a treacle mine.

References

it is owned by the ellis family which they have owned for 5 generations

External links

{{Commons category-inline, Dunchideock Civil parishes in Devon Devon places with etymologically Brittonic names