Jacobstow () is a

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 ...

and village in north

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, England, United Kingdom. The village is located east of the

A39 road The A39 is an A road in south west England. It runs south-west from Bath in Somerset through Wells, Glastonbury, Street and Bridgwater. It then follows the north coast of Somerset, Devon and Cornwall through Williton, Minehead, Porlock, Lynmo ...

approximately south of

Bude Bude (, locally or ; Cornish language, Cornish ) is a seaside town in north Cornwall, England, in the civil parish of Bude-Stratton and at the mouth of the River Neet (also known locally as the River Strat). It was sometimes formerly known as ...

.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 190 ''Bude & Clovelly'' Penhallym in the north of the parish is mentioned (as ''Penhalun'') 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 ...

;GENUKI website; Jacobstow
Retrieved May 2010 nearby is Penhallam, site of a medieval manor. The name Jacobstow originates from Saxon times and derives from ''St James'' (Latin ''Jacobus'') and ''holy place''. As well as the

church town 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 ...

, other settlements in the parish include Southcott and those parts of

Canworthy Water Canworthy Water () is a settlement in northeast Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated beside the River Ottery at approximately northeast of Camelford.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 190 ''Bude & Clovelly'' Canworthy Wate ...

north of the

River Ottery The River Ottery () is a small river in northeast Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The river is about long from its source southeast of Otterham to its confluence with the River Tamar at Nether Bridge, northeast of Launceston. The head ...

. Jacobstow parish is on high ground and is entirely rural in character. It is bounded to the northwest by

Poundstock Poundstock () is a civil parish and a hamlet on the north coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The hamlet is situated four miles (6.5 km) south of Bude half-a-mile west of the A39 trunk road about one mile from the coast. Poundstock ...

parish, to the east by

Week St Mary Week St Mary () is a village and civil parish in northeast Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated south of Bude close to the River Tamar and the border between Cornwall and Devon in the Hundred of Stratton. The parish population at the ...

parish, to the west by

St Gennys St Gennys () is a coastal civil parish and small settlement in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village of St Gennys is about southwest of Bude.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 190 ''Bude & Clovelly'' It is on high ground ...

parish, and to the south by

Warbstow Warbstow () is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The parish has a population of 439 according to the 2001 census, increasing to 520 at the 2011 census. The parish is one of the few left in England to still have ...

parish. The southwest boundary of the parish follows the River Ottery for approximately two miles. The parish is in the Stratton Registration District and had a population of 421 at the 2001

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

Churches and schools

Jacobstow parish church is dedicated to St James and there is evidence of a former

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

church on the same site. The present church is of the 15th century with a nave and chancel and north and south aisles. The three-stage battlemented granite tower houses a ring of six bells. The font is Norman of the Altarnun type and the altar is an Elizabethan communion table. An ancient altar stone is in the south aisle chapel: it was the main altar stone up to about 1550 in the reign of

Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. The only surviving son of Henry VIII by his thi ...

when the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

was becoming more

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

and an act required that all altar stones should be removed. This one became a footbridge over a stream. It was found and moved back to the churchyard as a seat in the 1800s, and installed in the south aisle chapel in 1972. The nails that form the cross on the base of the altar are 15th century, and were saved from roof restoration work in 1970. Eden Methodist Chapel - geograph

Jacobstow Community Primary School is situated in the village. The school caters for up to 90 children aged 4–11 years in three classes. Its catchment area includes most of Jacobstow parish as well as parts of Poundstock, St Gennys and Week St Mary parishes.Schools.Net website; Jacobstow
Retrieved May 2010

Notable people

Degory Wheare Degory Wheare, also spelt Digory Whear (the first name can be Latinized as Degoreus or Digoreus) (1573 – 1 August 1647) was a Cornish historian, the first Camden Professor of Ancient History in the University of Oxford. Life He was born i ...

, a historian, the first

Camden Professor of Ancient History The Camden Professorship of Ancient History at the University of Oxford was established in 1622 by English antiquary and historian William Camden, Clarenceux King of Arms, and endowed with the income of the manor of Bexley, becoming the first and ...

in the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, was born in Jacobstow.

References

External links

{{authority control Civil parishes in Cornwall Villages in Cornwall