[4] The village itself lies about four miles north of the centre of Exmouth on the B3179 road between Clyst St George and Budleigh Salterton.

The ancient manor of Nutwell was in the west of the parish, adjacent to the Exe Estuary; it was later owned by a branch of the Drake family.

The clergyman and botanist W. Keble Martin lived in Woodbury in retirement, as did the composer and music administrator Christopher Le Fleming.

The parish church, dedicated to Saint Swithun is early 15th century (consecrated in 1409): the Perpendicular style is mixed with elements of the older Decorated.

Interesting features include the woodwork of the screen, the 15th-century font, Elizabethan altar rails, Jacobean pulpit, and an early 17th-century monument to a man and his wife (recumbent effigies on a tomb-chest).