Kelly is a small village in west 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...

, 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...

.

The village church is largely Perpendicular of the 15th century but the chancel is earlier than the rest of the building, perhaps 14th century, and the south chancel aisle has windows of 1710 though in the Perpendicular style.

Kelly House

Kelly House, Devon

Kelly House is a grade I listed manor house and estate located in the village of Kelly, in Devon, England.The estate has been the property of the Kelly family since approximately 1100. Parts of the original Medieval manor house and great hall are still standing, though they are obscured from view,...

is mid 18th century but its predecessor the Tudor house was on a different site nearby and is still in existence.

Name

Kelly the name derives from the Cornish for 'grove'. This village was named Chelli in Old English (1166 a.d.), and Chenleie in the Anglo-Norman of the Domesday Book (1086 a.d.). Both these forms show mutation of the initial letter, again a feature of Celtic languages, where the initial letter 'mutates' when other words are place in front of it - in this case it would probably have originally been 'An Chelli' for 'the grove', where 'chelli' is the mutated form of 'Kelli', 'grove' in Old Cornish.

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