HEAVITREE

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)]

"HEAVITREE, a parish in the hundred of Wonford, county Devon. It is included within the borough of Exeter, of which it forms a suburb. The parish, which is bounded on the S.W. by the river Exe, contains Whipton Polstow, where are remains of a priory, and Wonford. The manor formerly belonged to the Mandevilles, Montacutes, Courtenays, and Kellys. Good building stone is quarried. The villages are lighted with gas, and facility of conveyance is afforded by the river Exe. The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of Exeter, value £641. The church, dedicated to St. Michael, is a modern structure, having been rebuilt at the cost of £3,300. There are besides two chapelries, St. Sidwell's and St. David's, in the city of Exeter, and a church dedicated to St. James, to which a district has been assigned out of the chapelry of St. Sidwell. The Independents have a chapel, and there is a National school. The charities produce £115 per annum, of which £45 as "livery dole" is paid to Dennis' almshouses for 12 aged poor. There is also an almshouse founded in 1603 by R. Duck, author of the treatise "De Auctoritate juris Civilis," who was born here. There are some remains of a Benedictine nunnery at Polstow, founded by Bishop Briwere in 1236. In 1849 were discovered near the almshouses the chain and part of the stake at which Bennet, the Torrington schoolmaster, was burnt in 1531."

"EAST WONFORD, (and South Wonford) hamlets in the parish of Heavitree, hundred of Wonford, county Devon, near Exeter.

"POLSTOW, a hamlet in the parish of Heavitree, hundred of Wonford, county Devon, half a mile from Exeter, within which borough it is included. There are remains of a priory, founded here in 1146 by Baldwin de Rivers."

"WHIPTON, a hamlet in the parish of Heavitree, county Devon, half a mile from Exeter, within which borough it is situated."