Bremridge
Since the construction of the nearby A361 North Devon Link Road direct access has been cut off from Bremridge to Filleigh and South Molton.
The surviving wing of the mansion house built in 1654 is a Grade II* listed building.
[1] Bremridge Wood is the site of an Iron Age enclosure or hill fort, the earthwork of which is situated on a hillside forming a promontory above the River Bray.
In Bremridge Wood survives a disused tunnel of the former Great Western Railway line between South Molton and Barnstaple, much of the course of which has been used for the A361.
Concerning the etymology of Bremridge, Risdon (d.1640) (who called it Bromridge) stated: "lands subject to brambles and briers so the name importeth".
[6] In the Domesday Book of 1086 BREMERIGE is listed as the 56th of the 99 Devonshire landholdings of Geoffrey de Montbray (d.1093), Bishop of Coutances, and was one of the 73 holdings he sub-infeudated to Drogo son of Mauger, his chief sub-tenant in Devon.
[7] Mauger his father was probably Mauger of Carteret who is listed in the Domesday Book as a tenant of Robert, Count of Mortain (d.1090) at his Devonshire manor of Donningstone in the parish of Clayhanger, Devon,[8] and was also a tenant of several of the Count's manors in Somerset.
[9] The ancient manor of Carteret is on the west coast of Normandy, Manche,[10] immediately to the east of the Channel Islands.
mansionem que uocatur Bremerige quam tenuit Edmerus ea die qua rex Eduuardus fuit uiuus et mortuus et reddidit gildum pro dimidia hida.
translated as: The bishop of Coutances has 1 estate which is called Bremeridge, which Eadmær held on the day that King Eadweard was alive and dead, and it paid geld for half a hide.
Bremridge was a constituent manor of the large feudal barony of Barnstaple, whose first Norman lord was Geoffrey de Montbray (d.1093), Bishop of Coutances.
[12] Juhel's son and heir was Alfred de Totnes, who died sine prole some time before 1139, leaving two sisters as his co-heiresses each to a moiety of the barony: Aenor and a sister whose name is unknown,[13] wife of Henry de Tracy (died pre-1165).
The Totnes sister of unknown name married Henry de Tracy (died pre-1165), to whom approximately half of the constituent manors of the barony, including Bremridge, were allocated as his wife's inheritance.
Henry left a son and heir Oliver I de Tracy (died c. 1184), who in 1165 was charged scutage on 25 knight's fees for his moiety.
[14] The Book of Fees (compiled circa 1198-1292) lists Bremelrig and Sudaure (Bremridge and South Aller) as held by "Oliver de Tracy".
Also William Coffin of Portledge, lord of the manor of Alwington, which family survived there in the male line until 1766.
The 1326 Inquisition post mortem of William II FitzMartin (died 1326) lists his fees pertaining to the Barony of Barnstaple, comprising 88 estates, including Bremelrugg and South Alre (Bremridge & South Aller), forming one knight's fee and tenanted by John Tracy.
[23] Margaret was the only child and sole heiress of John Coblegh (d.1542) of Brightley by his wife Joan Fortescue, whose small monumental brasses survives in Chittlehampton Church.
Sidney E. Dodderidge (1882), the family took its name from the estate of Dotheridge (anciently Dudderidge) in the parish of Alwington in North Devon.
[28] Other sources, most notably John Prince (d.1723)[29] supposed the family to have originated at the manor of Dodderidge in the parish of Sandford, near Crediton, in Mid-Devon.
A room of ornate carved oak panelling dated 1617 from this house survives in Barnstaple Guildhall, known as the "Dodderidge Room" and an ornate overmantel displays the date 1617 between the initials "PD" and "ED", signifying Pentecost and his wife Elizabeth.
Richard entered the shipping business and owned a 100-ton prize-ship named Prudence, a privateer effectively engaged in licensed piracy.
On 8 August 1596 she returned to Barnstaple, loaded with much pillage taken during the attack on Cadiz conducted by Lords Essex and Howard.
[34] Richard received at some time letters patent as one of six west country merchants licensed to trade with "the River of Senegal and Gambia in Guinea".
[35] Richard presented to the Corporation of Barnstaple "a great boale with its covering, wrought in silver and a silver-gilt table lamp".
19, 80).It would thus appear that the surviving house at Bremridge, apparently originally part of a larger structure,[47] was built by John Dodderidge (1610-1659) as the date "1654"[48] is sculpted on the labels of the Tudor arched front entrance.
High above the front door inset into the wall is a stone heraldic displaying the arms of Dodderidge (Argent, two pales wavy azure between nine cross croslets gules[49]) impaling (A chevron sable between three escallops).
[58] The collection, known as the Dodderidgian Library (Latin: Bibliotheca Doddridgiana) was housed in a purpose-made building erected at the north-east corner of St Peter's Church, Barnstaple, which survives.
In the 1839 Tithe apportionment Bremridge Barton was listed as comprising 301 acres of mixed arable and pasture valued at £30 15s.
