Posbury

By an Inquisition post mortem dated 1599 it appears that he died "seized of one capital messuage or tenement called Bremridge, with three orchards, two gardens, seventy acres of land, four of meadow and half an acre of wood, within the parish and hundred of Crediton, all held of Richard Pollard and John Hele, serjeant-at-law, as parcel of the Manor of Posbury Bradleigh, by the eighth part of a knight's fee and by the annual rent of seven shillings and five pence.

John Swete visited Little Fulford and recorded in his journal that the "large woollen manufactory" of the Tuckfield family "has ever since subsisted in these parts".

During the War the community started to host retreats for candidates for ordination as priests in the Diocese of Exeter, which practice was only discontinued shortly before 2014.

An Act of Parliament passed during the reign of King William IV (1830-1837) relaxed the rules governing the building of additional churches to cater for populous parishes.

Samuel Rowe, rector of Crediton Church, declared his Sunday services to be attended by between seven and eight hundred, and the conditions were thus met.

The new chapel, dedicated to St Luke, was built at Posbury in 1836 on a site owned by Mr Tuckfield, formerly called "Blackadown", alias "Pethams Postbury".

The land, chapel building and fund were transferred into the legal ownership of trustees appointed for the purpose, prominent members of the local gentry namely Sir Stafford Northcote, 7th Baronet (1762-1851), of Pynes, Newton St Cyres, Sir Humphrey Davie, 10th Baronet (1775-1846)Bart of Creedy House, Sandford, James Wentworth Buller (1798-1865), of Downes House, MP for Exeter (1830-1835) and for North Devon (1857-1865) and John Sillifant Esq.

Mr Tuckfield became owner of the advowson, and thus patron of the living, which office is still held today by his descendant Sir John Richard Shelley, 11th Baronet (born 1943), of Shobrooke House.

[12] She had an "ardent zeal for the training of the deaf and dumb and of school masters for the poor" (as commented the Educational pioneer Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 11th Baronet (1809-1898), both of whose wives were Charlotte's nieces).

Right : East end of St Luke's Chapel, Posbury, built in 1835; left : in background, Posbury House, in 2014 home to The Community of the Franciscan Servants of Jesus & Mary
Posbury Clump
Posbury House, in 2014 home to The Community of the Franciscan Servants of Jesus & Mary . The east end of St Luke's Chapel is visible at far right
St Luke's Chapel, Posbury, built in 1935