PLYMSTOCK

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

"PLYMSTOCK, a parish in the hundred of Plympton, county Devon, 3 miles S.E. of Plymouth, its post town. The parish, which is extensive, is situated on the river Plym, near the edge of the Catwater and Plymouth Sound, and includes the flourishing village of Oreston, and the hamlets of Turnchapel and Elburton. It is intersected by the Totnes and Exeter road. The surface is hilly, and the soil a light loam resting on limestone. The land is well cultivated, about two-thirds being arable and the remainder pasture and woodland. It was a post of considerable importance during the civil war between Charles I. and his parliament, and was once the headquarters of the Royalists in 1642. The manor passed from Childe the Hunter to the monks of Tavistock, who outwitted the Plymstock men at Guile-bridge, on the river Tamar. A portion of the inhabitants are engaged in shipbuilding, and many are employed in the limestone quarries for which this neighbourhood is celebrated. At Oreston is the great marble quarry from which the material was obtained for the construction of the Plymouth Breakwater. There are wet docks at Turnchapel sufficiently capacious for the reception of frigates, and extensive building yards adjoining. The living is a perpetual curacy* in the diocese of Exeter, value £188, in the patronage of the Dean and Canons of Windsor, to whom the impropriation belongs. The church is dedicated to St. Mary and All Saints. In the interior is part of a screen and several monuments to the Harris family. There is also a district church at Hoos, the living of which is a perpetual curacy, value £79. The church stands on the site of an ancient chapel dedicated to St. Catherine. The parochial charities produce about £81 per annum, £10 of which goes to Harris's almshouse, founded in 1617. There is a National school. The Independents have a chapel at Plymstock, and at Oreston, Turnchapel, and Elburton, in this parish are places of worship for the Calvinistic Methodists and Wesleyans. Plymouth Breakwater is a little over 2 miles from the Hoe. There is a coastguard station at Bovisland, also waterworks and a watchtower called "Mount Batten." The ships outward bound take in water at this place. Radford, the old seat of the Harris family, is believed to have been the residence of Sir Walter Raleigh after his arrival at Plymouth in 1618, and Stoddescombe was the birth-place of Dr. Forster a writer on divinity. The Duke of Bedford is lord of the manor."