White's Directory of Holcombe Rogus (1890)

Transcribed by

Richard Farmer

Holcombe Rogus parish is in Wellington union and county court district, Collumpton petty sessional division, Bampton hundred, Northern division of the county, Exeter archdeaconry and rural deanery. It had 734 inhabitants in 1881 and comprises 3024 acres of land. The parish adjoins the Great Western Canal, and the borders of Somerset, 1½ mile from Burlescombe Ry. Station, 6 W.S.W of Wellington and 8½ miles N.E. by E. of Tiverton. The rateable value of the parish is £4733. Its land is generally fertile and hilly, and limestone is abundant. A market and fair granted to this parish in 1343 have long been obsolete. At Doomesday Survey the manor was held by Rogo, or Rogus, under Baldwin the Sheriff. For some centuries it was the seat of the Bluett family. William Carew Rayer, Esq. J.P, the present lord of the manor, and owner of most of the parish, resides at Holcombe Court, the ancient manor-house, which is in the Gothic style with a tower, it having been purchased by his father in 1857 of P.H. Bluett, Esq. The west wing was taken down in 1845, and the rest of the mansion has been repaired.
The church (All Saints) is a fine ancient Perpendicular structure, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, mortuary chapel, south porch and embattled tower containing a clock and 5 bells. The chancel was restored in 1877 at a cost of over £500 by the late vicar (Rev. W Wills) and W.C. Rayer Esq., as lay rectors, the woodwork being chiefly done by the former and the stonework by the later. A new reredos, by Mr H Hems of Exeter, was given by Mr and Mrs Rayer. The north aisle has a fine old wagon roof. In the chancel is a splendid mural monument of the Bluett family, at the top of which are two figures, beautifully sculptured, and said to be exact likeness of two of the family. In a chapel at the east end are two marble tombs, with recumbent effigies of four members of the Bluett family. The register dates from the year 1540. The living is a vicarage, valued in K.B at £10 10s.2½d, and now at £300, is in the patronage of W.C.Rayer, Esq. And incumbency of Rev. John Pascoe Mayne. The impropriators of the great tithes are William C Rayer, Esq. J.P. and I.Thornton West, Esq., which have been commuted at £220, and the vicarial for about £320 per annum. The glebe is 1½ acre, and the vicarage is a good residence.
The parish has a small BAPTIST CHAPEL; and sends a girl to Uffculme Free School. The Rev.W.Wills left £300 invested by trustees in the 3 per Cent. Reduced Annuities (£319 3s. the interest of which is given to the poor on December 20, the anniversary of the donor's birthday. There are two SCHOOLS in this parish - one a Charity School, on Dr Bell's system, endowed by Mrs Susannah Webber, in June 1823, with £1000, for the free education of twenty boys and thirty girls. The school was built out of the endowment. The other school has been erected by W.C, Rayer, Esq., and is supported by him. By a new scheme twenty boys who are educated free have been transferred from the Charity School to that supported by W.C.Rayer, Esq., which is now for boys only. All the girls of the parish and the boys under six attend the Charity School, thirty of the girls being educated free.
POST OFFICE at John Tooze's. Letters are received at 8.a.m., and dispatched at 6.30 p.m. through Wellington, Somerset.

Brian Randell, 6 Aug 2005