Knowle is a village near

Braunton Braunton is a large village, civil parishes in England, civil parish, ecclesiastical parish and former Manorialism, manor in Devon. The village is situated west of Barnstaple. It is one of the largest villages in Devon with a population at th ...

located on the

A361 road The A361 is an A class road in southern England, which at is the longest three-digit A road in the UK. History When first designated in 1922, the A361 ran from Taunton (Somerset) to Banbury (Oxfordshire). It was later extended west through B ...

between

Ilfracombe Ilfracombe ( ) is a seaside resort and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the North Devon coast, England, with a small harbour surrounded by cliffs. The parish stretches along the coast from the 'Coastguard Cottages' in Hele Bay towar ...

and

Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town and civil parish in the North Devon district of Devon, England. The town lies at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool from ...

North Devon North Devon is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based just outside Barnstaple, the district's largest town. The district also includes the towns of Ilfracombe, Lynton and Lynmouth and Sout ...

, England. It is in the

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 ...

of Braunton. Knowle is situated near to the Iron Age fortification of Knowle Hill Castle.

History

The number of inhabitants expanded considerably in the 1960s with the building of a large number of

bungalows A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is typically single or one and a half storey, if a smaller upper storey exists it is frequently set in the roof and windows that come out from the roof, and may be surrounded by wide verandas. Th ...

which nearly doubled the housing stock. At the time there was a push for people from the Midlands to relocate to ease the housing issues under a policy known as

overspill In nonstandard analysis, a branch of mathematics, overspill (referred to as ''overflow'' by Goldblatt (1998, p. 129)) is a widely used proof technique. It is based on the fact that the set of standard natural numbers N is not an internal sub ...

. The estate of about 50 bungalows were built by the local builder 'Jimmy' James Dennis whose had all his own trades and workers. He also ran his own sawmills and forestry to create the wood. Jimmy lived on the small hill above the new houses towards the C of E. He had built a

cistern A cistern (; , ; ) is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. To prevent leakage, the interior of the cistern is often lined with hydraulic plaster. Cisterns are disti ...

on the opposite hill, fed by a pipe laid into a stream from the top of the hill right across the village to his house. Knowle had two churches; C of E at the top of the hill (closed) and a Methodist hall in the middle of the village. In the 1960s there was a small shop by the main road, separate post office, garage and a pub. Called the 'Ebrington Arms' excluding the pub. The rest have been merged into the garage. In the 70s the pub was changed with a single room from each side of a central front door and a bar that extended into each room. In the 1980s the pub was extensively modified to cater for food services. About 0.5 miles from the village, at

Winsham Winsham is a village and civil parish south-east of Chard and from Crewkerne, in Somerset, England. The parish, which has a population of approximately 750 residents living in some 335 households, includes the hamlets of Whatley, Bridge, Purti ...

, there were three farms who maintained the fields with arable and dairy stocks. A small holding just outside of the village provide rabbits as a pet or for food. The village shop was run in the 60s and 70s. As people didn't have supermarkets or many cars, the small shop, the local farmer, the small holder, and peoples own gardens, provided most of the necessities. For other items it was a bus ride to

, and all the way to

Pannier Market A pannier market is a form of indoor market especially popular in Devon in the West Country of the United Kingdom where they can be found in various cities and towns. They take their name from the panniers once used to carry goods to market on the ...

especially in

cattle market In economics, a market is a composition of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations or infrastructures whereby parties engage in Exchange (economics), exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets re ...

day. In the village, also lives A.H. Slee, a published historian who had written several books. And Mr Bray, a former tech teacher who worked in a school in Barnstaple.

Events

The village come together throughout the year often as a result of the local Women's Institute. To create the lorry floats for the children to enter the Braunton Carnival Parade, thousands of paper flowers was made over the years to decorate those floats.

References

{{authority control Villages in Devon Braunton