Duvale

[1] According to the Book of Fees[2] Duvale was one of the member manors of the feudal barony of Bampton, together with Hele(possibly Hele, Clayhanger,[3] Doddiscombe, Hockworthy, Havekareland (possibly Hawkerland, Colaton Raleigh) [4] Legh (Lea Barton, Hockworthy)[5] Duvale was held by a branch of the ancient Dennis family[6] of Orleigh.

[16] A mural monument to John Tristram (1668–1722) exists in Bampton parish church, inscribed as follows: On the escutcheon above are shown the arms of Tristram (Argent, three torteaux a label of three points azure a chief gules) impaling Stucley (Azure, three pears or) and Southcombe (Argent, a chevron ermines between three roses gules seeded or barbed vert After the Tristram family, in 1796 Duvale was the joint property of the East India Company Captain Thomas Newte, author of Prospects and Observations on a Tour in England and Scotland, Natural, Oeconomical, and Literary (1791),[17] (a reworking and enlargement of A Tour in England and Scotland by an English Gentleman (1789) by William Thomson (1746–1817)), and the widow of his brother Rev.

Several monumental inscriptions to Newte family members survive in Tiverton parish church, including:[24] In the summer of 1796 Rev John Swete (1752–1821) visited Duvale as part of his topographical tour of Devon.

In 1880 Duvale was let to Thomas I Yandle, a farmer previously the tenant of Hele Bridge, a farm on the Pixton Estate in Dulverton, who had fallen out with his landlord.

Thomas I had 3 daughters (including Clare, Kate and Amy (died aged 108 in about 1991), all of whom remained unmarried and kept house for various of their brothers and parents) and 5 sons who grew up at Duvale: Jack, the eldest, Dave, Perce, Ernest (born 1800) and Thomas II, who died of TB aged 14.

In 1918 Thomas I retired from farming, and Ernest took over the tenancy at Riphay, while Jack remained at Chevithorne and Dave and Perce in partnership at Duvale.

Ernest's son is Tom Yandle (born 1935) of Riphay, chairman of the Devon and Somerset Staghounds, High Sheriff of Somerset and a committee member of both the National Trust and Exmoor National Park, who played a leading role in challenging the Labour government's ultimately successful proposal to ban hunting with hounds.

[36] Since 1991 the property has been renamed "Duvale Priory" and has been operated by Mark Underhill as a holiday letting business, and more recently as a licensed functions venue.