Sidbury
| Sidbury | |
| Devon | |
|---|---|
 St Giles's church, Sidbury | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SY140918 |
| Location: | 50°43’11"N, 3°13’15"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 457 (2011) |
| Post town: | Sidmouth |
| Postcode: | EX10 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | East Devon |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
East Devon |
Sidbury is a large village in eastern Devon, on the A375 road and to the north of the seaside resort town of Sidmouth. In 2011, it had a population of just 457 in the village itself.
The village is on the River Sid, which rises at Crowpits Covert (SY138963) and runs for six miles southward to enter the sea in Lyme Bay at Sidmouth.
Above the village is Sidbury Castle, the site of an Iron Age hill fort.
History
Sidbury is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as the manor of Sideberia. It was then held by Osbern FitzOsbern, Bishop of Exeter.
Parish church
The Church of St Peter and St Giles is a work of many ages. It has a Norman tower topped with a Victorian spire, a Saxon crypt, a gunpowder storage room dating from the Napoleonic era and a 500-year-old font.
The tower has eight bells, the earliest dating from 1662 and 1663. Six more were hung in 1712, 1750, 1752, 1776 and two in 1947 to complete the present eight. Both the tower and the rest of the church are Norman but the tower was accurately rebuilt in 1884. The north aisle is possibly 13th century and the south porch Perpendicular Gothic. The windows are mediæval and of various periods; the octagonal font is of the Perpendicular period also.[1]
The church is a Grade I listed building.[2]
About the village
The village has a primary school, a village hall, a pub (the Red Lion), and one butcher's shop also selling groceries and newspapers.[3] There is a working watermill in the village.
The manor house, Sidbury Manor, stands about half a mile north-west of the village centre. There is a regular bus service to Sidmouth and Exeter.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Sidbury) |
References
- ↑ Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Devon, 1952; 1989 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09596-8page 260–261
- ↑ National Heritage List 1216540: Church of St Giles and St Peter (Grade I listing)
- ↑ Sidbury.org.uk
