The first battle was a surprise attack by a mounted Parliamentarian force led by Sir William Ruthven that moved under cover of darkness from Plymouth via Ivybridge on 7 December 1642.

In the early morning charge they routed a mostly untrained Royalist force that had gathered in the town, where Sir Ralph Hopton, the King's senior commander in the West Country, was holding council at the manor house of Champernowne Court.

In Domesday Book it's listed as two separate parts;[5][6] the principal one as Motbilie, one of the holdings of Robert, Count of Mortain,[7] half-brother of William the Conqueror.

Sir James Okeston (son of Sir Alexander de Okeston) granted Bridford to Richard Champernowne, as evidenced in a deed dated 1314[13] The manor house, last occupied by the Champernowne family and known as "Court House", was situated on the north side of the parish church of St George, on or near the site of Modbury Priory, founded in the 12th century by the Vautort lords of the manor.

The main body of the church is fourteenth century and is constructed of coursed rubble with granite dressings beneath slate roofs.

The tower has angle buttresses and a broach spire believed to have been struck by lightning in AD 1621 and rebuilt as a copy of the original.

Yarnacombe in the parish of Modbury is a historic manor, once belonging to the Hart Family, and subsequently to the attorney W. Mackworth Praed.

[18] In April 2007 local traders declared that for environmental reasons, they would no longer give customers plastic bags.

[31][32][33] This initiative led to other communities, such as Ilam in Staffordshire and Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire, pursuing similar enterprises.

[34] Modbury has a recreation field with a football pitch, tennis courts and a tarmac all-weather surface used mainly for skateboarding.

This is the home of Modbury Rovers a Junior football club, who compete in the FA Pioneer Youth and other local leagues.