Description
Clovelly, a village and a parish in Devonshire. The village nestles in a woody nook of a picturesque sea cliff about 500 feet high, 11 miles W by S of Bideford station on the L. & S.W.R., and is one of the most extraordinary and romantic seats of population in the kingdom. It consists of one main street, or rather a main staircase, with a few houses climbing on each side of the combe so far as the narrow space allows. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Bideford, a small harbour, and an inn, and carries on a fishery in prime herrings and many other kinds of fish. The parish comprises 3395 acres; population, 741. The manor belonged once to the Giffords, passed in the time of Richard II. to Sir John Gary.
The cliffs on the coast and many parts inland both exhibit splendid scenery and command magnificent views. Bucks Mill Glen makes a fine break in the cliffs, and the freshwater rivulet forms a pretty cascade over them to the shore. Clovelly Court, the seat of the Fane-Hamlyn family, is a handsome edifice of 1780, on the site of a previous mansion destroyed by fire, and stands amid grounds surpassingly picturesque, with woods, crags, waterfalls, and other features of distinctive interest. Clovelly Dykes, situated on very high ground, is an ancient British camp, 360 feet long and 300 broad, with three trenches or dykes. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Exeter; value, £279. The church is an ancient structure with a low tower, was made collegiate in 1387 by Sir William Cary, and contains a brass and monuments of the Carys, and a brass memorial of Charles Kingsley. The font is very ancient, supposed to be Saxon. There are Wesleyan and Bible Christian chapels. There is a coastguard station and a reading room.
