Hemyock
Encyclopedia
Hemyock is a village in Devon
, England
. It is located approximately five miles from the Somerset
town of Wellington
. The River Culm
flows through Hemyock. Hemyock was the former home of the St Ivel
dairy processing plant, formerly where the butter-spreads 'St Ivel Gold' and 'Utterly-Butterly' were produced before being moved to a factory in the north of England.
Hemyock was also the birthplace of the National Federation of Young Farmers' Clubs
. The first Young Culm Farmers Club in England began here in 1921, and it continues to prosper as the Culm Valley Young Farmers Club.
Hemyock is the largest village on the Blackdown Hills
, which is now designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
(AONB). The parish has an area of about 2350 hectares, and lies on the NW of the Blackdown Hills.
. The population remained fairly constant throughout the 19th century, and until the end of the Second World War. Since then a number of housing estates have been built, and the population has increased to over 2,000.
local iron ores were smelted
in small bloomeries
(furnaces) to produce pure iron
. In Saxon times a battle was fought at Simonsburrow between the native Britons
and King Ime's Saxon army, which put an end (temporarily) to the King's expansion to the west.
The name Hemyock could have originated from the British stream name "Samiaco" (meaning summer), other authorities suggest a Saxon origin from a personal name "Hemman" coupled with a Saxon word for a bend or a hook (occi).
county
of Devon
shire, under the system of government used during the Saxon
period. The Domesday Book
records that the Hemyock Hundred consisted of the manors
of: Awliscombe, Bolham Water, Bywood, Churchstanton (Somerset
), Clayhidon, Culm Davy, Culm Pyne, Culmstock, Dunkeswell, Gorewell, Hemyock, Hole, Ivedon, Mackham, Weston.
granted Sir William and Lady Margaret Asthorpe a licence to crenellate the Hemyock manor house
; meaning the permission to fortify it. Hemyock Castle has many similarities with the much better known Bodiam Castle
, granted the licence to crenellate in 1385. Over the centuries, Hemyock Castle had many notable owners including Lord Chief Justice Sir John Popham and General Sir John Graves Simcoe
the first lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada
in 1792. He is buried at Wolford Chapel
near Dunkeswell
. The chapel is now owned by the Province of Ontario
.
During the English Civil War
it was held for Parliament
, subjected to a brief but brutal siege
and eventually slighted to destroy its military value. Parts of the castle walls, towers and moat still remain. They are a scheduled ancient monument
. The castle site is privately owned: Visits can be arranged for groups; there are also public open days.
, is said to have originated here.
Hemyock was the terminus of the Culm Valley Light Railway that ran for about 100 years from the village to Tiverton Junction.
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is located approximately five miles from the Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
town of Wellington
Wellington, Somerset
Wellington is a small industrial town in rural Somerset, England, situated south west of Taunton in the Taunton Deane district, near the border with Devon, which runs along the Blackdown Hills to the south of the town...
. The River Culm
River Culm
thumb|Old stone bridge with pedestrian refuges over River Culm at Culmstock The River Culm flows through Devon, England. It rises in the Blackdown Hills at a spring - - near Culmhead and flows west through Hemyock, then Culmstock to Uffculme...
flows through Hemyock. Hemyock was the former home of the St Ivel
St Ivel
St Ivel is a brand of dairy products in the United Kingdom. It began as a subsidiary under the ownership of the Unigate dairy company with most production sites in the south west of England and some in Wales...
dairy processing plant, formerly where the butter-spreads 'St Ivel Gold' and 'Utterly-Butterly' were produced before being moved to a factory in the north of England.
Hemyock was also the birthplace of the National Federation of Young Farmers' Clubs
National Federation of Young Farmers' Clubs
The National Federation of Young Farmers' Clubs is the largest rural youth organisation of its kind, in the United Kingdom. The Federation covers various Young Farmers' Clubs throughout England and Wales, helping support young people in agriculture and the countryside...
. The first Young Culm Farmers Club in England began here in 1921, and it continues to prosper as the Culm Valley Young Farmers Club.
Hemyock is the largest village on the Blackdown Hills
Blackdown Hills
The Blackdown Hills are a range of hills along the Somerset-Devon border in south-western England, which were designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1991....
, which is now designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an area of countryside considered to have significant landscape value in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, that has been specially designated by the Countryside Agency on behalf of the United Kingdom government; the Countryside Council for Wales on...
(AONB). The parish has an area of about 2350 hectares, and lies on the NW of the Blackdown Hills.
Population
Hemyock is a typical upland settlement consisting of a central "town" surrounded by a number of hamlets (Culm Davey, Millhayes, Simonsburrow, Ashculme, Tedburrow, Madford, Mountshayne etc). From the 16th century to the early 19th century much of the parish's wealth came from the production of woolWool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
. The population remained fairly constant throughout the 19th century, and until the end of the Second World War. Since then a number of housing estates have been built, and the population has increased to over 2,000.
History
The village has a very long history and some prehistoric remains may be found, from about 100 BC to well beyond. In the Middle AgesMiddle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
local iron ores were smelted
Smelting
Smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to produce a metal from its ore. This includes iron extraction from iron ore, and copper extraction and other base metals from their ores...
in small bloomeries
Bloomery
A bloomery is a type of furnace once widely used for smelting iron from its oxides. The bloomery was the earliest form of smelter capable of smelting iron. A bloomery's product is a porous mass of iron and slag called a bloom. This mix of slag and iron in the bloom is termed sponge iron, which...
(furnaces) to produce pure iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
. In Saxon times a battle was fought at Simonsburrow between the native Britons
Britons (historical)
The Britons were the Celtic people culturally dominating Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...
and King Ime's Saxon army, which put an end (temporarily) to the King's expansion to the west.
The name Hemyock could have originated from the British stream name "Samiaco" (meaning summer), other authorities suggest a Saxon origin from a personal name "Hemman" coupled with a Saxon word for a bend or a hook (occi).
Hemyock Hundred
Hemyock was head of the Hemyock Hundred, an administrative sub-division of the ShireShire
A shire is a traditional term for a division of land, found in the United Kingdom and in Australia. In parts of Australia, a shire is an administrative unit, but it is not synonymous with "county" there, which is a land registration unit. Individually, or as a suffix in Scotland and in the far...
county
County
A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain modern nations. Historically in mainland Europe, the original French term, comté, and its equivalents in other languages denoted a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain...
of Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
shire, under the system of government used during the Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
period. The Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
records that the Hemyock Hundred consisted of the manors
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
of: Awliscombe, Bolham Water, Bywood, Churchstanton (Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
), Clayhidon, Culm Davy, Culm Pyne, Culmstock, Dunkeswell, Gorewell, Hemyock, Hole, Ivedon, Mackham, Weston.
Hemyock Castle
On 5 November 1380, King Richard IIRichard II of England
Richard II was King of England, a member of the House of Plantagenet and the last of its main-line kings. He ruled from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. Richard was a son of Edward, the Black Prince, and was born during the reign of his grandfather, Edward III...
granted Sir William and Lady Margaret Asthorpe a licence to crenellate the Hemyock manor house
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
; meaning the permission to fortify it. Hemyock Castle has many similarities with the much better known Bodiam Castle
Bodiam Castle
Bodiam Castle is a 14th-century moated castle near Robertsbridge in East Sussex, England. It was built in 1385 by Sir Edward Dalyngrigge, a former knight of Edward III, with the permission of Richard II, ostensibly to defend the area against French invasion during the Hundred Years' War...
, granted the licence to crenellate in 1385. Over the centuries, Hemyock Castle had many notable owners including Lord Chief Justice Sir John Popham and General Sir John Graves Simcoe
John Graves Simcoe
John Graves Simcoe was a British army officer and the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada from 1791–1796. Then frontier, this was modern-day southern Ontario and the watersheds of Georgian Bay and Lake Superior...
the first lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...
in 1792. He is buried at Wolford Chapel
Wolford Chapel
Wolford Chapel is the burial place of John Graves Simcoe, the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada. It is the property of the Canadian province of Ontario, and flies the Flag of Canada despite being in the English countryside....
near Dunkeswell
Dunkeswell
Dunkeswell is a village in Devon, England. It is approximately north of the town of Honiton.-History:Dunkeswell is notable for having a busy small airfield, now Dunkeswell Aerodrome which was initially established as an American Navy air base during World War II, and continues to offer civil...
. The chapel is now owned by the Province of Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
.
During the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
it was held for Parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
, subjected to a brief but brutal siege
Siege
A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by attrition or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit". Generally speaking, siege warfare is a form of constant, low intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static...
and eventually slighted to destroy its military value. Parts of the castle walls, towers and moat still remain. They are a scheduled ancient monument
Scheduled Ancient Monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a 'nationally important' archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorized change. The various pieces of legislation used for legally protecting heritage assets from damage and destruction are grouped under the term...
. The castle site is privately owned: Visits can be arranged for groups; there are also public open days.
Churches
St. Mary's Church is adjacent to Hemyock Castle, on the other side of St Margaret's Brook. The Baptist Church is at the top of Station Road.Notable people
The Cadbury family, of chocolate fameJohn Cadbury
John Cadbury was proprietor of a small chocolate business in Birmingham, England, that later became part of Cadbury plc, one of the world's largest chocolate producers.-Biography:...
, is said to have originated here.
Facilities
Hemyock remains a viable village, with a school, excellent medical facilities, two garages, two hairdressers, a pub, one convenience store, one Post Office, two playing fields, a Parish Hall and two churches.Transport
Local bus services 20, 20A, 397, 675 are operated by Stagecoach.Hemyock was the terminus of the Culm Valley Light Railway that ran for about 100 years from the village to Tiverton Junction.