Dean Prior is a village and

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 below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

near the A38 road, in the

South Hams South Hams is a local government district on the south coast of Devon, England. Services divide between those provided by its own Council headquartered in Totnes, and those provided by Devon County Council headquartered in the city of Exete ...

district, in the county of

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

, England. It is located near the town of

Buckfastleigh Buckfastleigh is a market town and civil parish in Devon, England situated beside the Devon Expressway ( A38) at the edge of the Dartmoor National Park. It is part of Teignbridge and, for ecclesiastical purposes, lies within the Totnes Deanery ...

and north of South Brent. Dean Prior has a Grade I listed church dedicated to St George the Martyr, where the seventeenth-century poet Robert Herrick was vicar from 1629 to 1646 and 1660 to 1674 and is buried. In the 1870s, Dean Prior was described as "a parish in Totnes district, Devon; on the verge of Dartmoor, near the river Dart, 3 miles N of Brent r. station, and 6 NW of Totnes." According to the 2011 census, there were 94 males and 107 females living in the parish; a total population of 201 people. Traditionally, Dean Prior's population were predominantly working in agriculture, trade or manufacturing; reflected by the 1801 census that divided its population into these three categories. This was contrasted by the census of 1841 which did not divide the population into these groups and instead focused on occupational data and social status. The first census to report on how well people were housed was that of 1891, but the only statistics gathered were on the number of rooms and the number of people in each household. We know of no constituencies that were named after Dean Prior; where constituencies had more than one name, we base this on their "preferred" name. Dean Prior's population has gradually risen based on the census, with a fairly even, but slightly male-dominated population. Its greatest infant mortality rate was recorded to be at 150 per 1000 in 1860 (today it is recorded at two). There has always been a heavy agricultural presence in the parish of Dean Prior, as well as consumer services and manufacturing. However, contemporary statistics state that the area is now much more service-based, e.g. business, consumer and public. Traditionally the unemployment rate has stayed low but the percentage of people with university degrees or equivalent has risen to 35 (2010). Living conditions have also massively improved over the years. Industrial Britain meant that overcrowding in housing was common, however as Britain has developed this is no longer a problem; this is echoed in Dean Prior. File:Dean Forge and Dean Prior Garden Centre - geograph.org.uk - 14676.jpg, Dean Forge and Dean Prior Garden Centre File:Dean Prior ordanance survey snip.png,

Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was a ...

map showing Dean Prior File:Dean Prior population 201 - 2011.png, Dean Prior parish population, 2001–2011

References

External links

Genuki

Listed buildings in Dean Prior

The Church of St George The Martyr website
Villages in South Hams Civil parishes in South Hams {{Devon-geo-stub