Stokenham () 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

South Hams South Hams is a non-metropolitan district, local government district on the south coast of Devon, England. Its council is based in the town of Totnes, although the largest town is Ivybridge. The district also contains the towns of Dartmouth, ...

district, in the county of

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. The population of the parish at the 2011 census was 1,895. Devon Start Point

Pronunciation

For the great majority of towns in England with names ending in -ham the suffix is very weakly pronounced as /əm/ and the stress is always earlier in the word. In Birmingham, for example, the stress is on the first syllable. Stokenham is a clear exception, with the -ham fully enunciated and stressed.

Places in the parish

As well as Stokenham the civil parish includes the settlements of

Torcross Torcross is a seaside village in the South Hams district of south Devon in England. It stands at grid reference at the southern end of Slapton Sands, a narrow strip of land and shingle beach which separates the freshwater lake of Slapton L ...

Beesands Beesands is a small settlement located midway between Hallsands and Torcross on the coast of Start Bay in South Devon, England. It is best known as a tourist destination, but is still a fishing village that concentrates mainly on crab and lob ...

Hallsands Hallsands is a village and beach in south Devon, England, in a precarious position between cliffs and the sea, between Beesands to the north and Start Point, Devon, Start Point to the south. History The early history of Hallsands is unknown, bu ...

, Kellaton, Kernborough, Dunstone, Beeson and Chillington and Bickerton. It forms part of the district of South Hams.

History

The village of Stokenham was known in Saxon Times as Stoc or ''Stoc Hamme'' ("meaning Stoc meadows"). By the 13th century the town was called Stoke in Hamme. An

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected t ...

has the same name. The ward population at the 2011 census was 1,895. In

Mediaeval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and t ...

times St. Humbert the Confessor (d.1188AD) was locally

venerated Veneration (; ), or veneration of saints, is the act of honoring a saint, a person who has been identified as having a high degree of sanctity or holiness. Angels are shown similar veneration in many religions. Veneration of saints is practiced, ...

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, fa ...

in the town. The area was known in the 19th century for the fine crabs, and in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

local residents were evacuated from the area, on the eve of

D-day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

Geography

To the east of the parish is

Start Bay Start Bay is a sub-bay of the nautical definition of Lyme Bay in the English Channel in south-east Devon, England. The southernmost of three substantial Devon bays facing east it is between the Mew Stone which sits east of the River Dart's est ...

in the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

. The principal road in the parish is the A379 running between the nearest towns of

Kingsbridge Kingsbridge is a market town in the South Hams district of Devon, England, with a population of 6,116 at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census. Two electoral wards bear the name of ''Kingsbridge'' (East & North). Their combined population ...

(to the west) and Dartmouth to the north.

Local landmarks

The parish church

The present church dates from 1431; an earlier

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

church predated it. "The church as it stands today, is a fine example of the perpendicular style of medieval architecture. It is built on the side of a hill so that its whole length can be seen from below and is dedicated to St Michael and All Angels, which was common practice for churches standing on elevated sites. It was, however, dedicated to St Barnabas and prior to that to St Humbert the Confessor."

Stokenham manor house

Immediately to the east of the

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

is the site of Stokenham

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...

, abandoned in 1585 but possibly dating back to at least the 12th century.

Local pub

The Tradesman's Arms is an imposing 14th-century, part-

thatch Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, Phragmites, water reed, Cyperaceae, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), Juncus, rushes, Calluna, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away fr ...

ed pub and restaurant. On the 27 September 2021, a fire believed to have originated in the kitchen destroyed much of the pub alongside three neighbouring homes. The Tradesman's Arms was repaired having undergone a three-year building reconstruction, along with the fire damaged adjoining cottages which all reopened in May 2024.

References

{{Authority control Villages in South Hams