Colebrooke Parish Books | Colebrooke, Coleford and Penstone

Two books now bring together the history, places, people and memories of Colebrooke Parish in Devon, including the communities of Colebrooke, Coleford and Penstone.

Drawing on many years of local knowledge and historical research, the books preserve a remarkable record of this small part of Mid Devon — its farms and houses, families and occupations, roads and railways, inns and mills, memorable characters, village events and stories that might otherwise be lost.

Whether your family once lived here, you have connections with the parish, you are researching your Devon family history, or you simply enjoy discovering the history of rural Devon, the two books approach Colebrooke’s past in very different but complementary ways.

Colebrooke Parish — Volume I

The Parish, its Places, People and Landscape

A Parish History

Colebrooke Parish — Volume I is the main illustrated history and reference work for the parish.

Rather than concentrating only on the village of Colebrooke, it explores the whole historic parish, including Colebrooke, Coleford and Penstone, together with the farms, houses, hamlets and landscape surrounding them.

The book brings together historic maps, photographs, parish records, census evidence, directories, property information and local knowledge to tell the stories of individual places and the people who occupied them.

Discover the history of the parish

Among the subjects explored are:

• the farms, houses and historic properties of Colebrooke Parish;
• Colebrooke, Coleford and Penstone through the centuries;
• old inns, shops, mills, chapels and schools;
• farming and the changing rural landscape;
• historic roads, lanes and the railway;
• families and former occupants of parish properties;
• census returns, directories and documentary records;
• tithe maps, field names and historic boundaries;
• photographs showing buildings and places through time;
• vanished buildings and features of the landscape;
• the development of the parish into the community we know today.

It is particularly useful for anyone tracing a family, farm or house connected with Colebrooke Parish, as well as readers interested in the wider history of Crediton and Mid Devon.

A record of a changing Devon parish

Many of Colebrooke Parish’s old farms and buildings survive, but their uses, occupants and surroundings have changed considerably.

Volume I attempts to preserve that history by bringing the surviving evidence together in one place, allowing present and future generations to discover not only what stood where, but something of the people whose lives were connected with those places.

Buy Colebrooke Parish — Volume I

The book is available to order online.

Buy Colebrooke Parish Volume I on Amazon

Buy Colebrooke Parish Volume I from The Great British Bookshop

Colebrooke Parish Stories

Lives, events and memories from Colebrooke, Coleford and Penstone

By John & Neville Enderson

Where Colebrooke Parish — Volume I explores the places and documentary history of the parish, Colebrooke Parish Stories concentrates on the people, events and extraordinary incidents behind that history.

The book contains 101 individual stories from Colebrooke, Coleford and Penstone, ranging from serious historical events to amusing village memories and curious episodes from everyday rural life.

Some come from documentary research; others preserve memories and local knowledge handed down through generations.

101 stories from the parish

Within its pages are stories of:

• village characters and remarkable local people;
• old pubs and inns;
• farms and farming families;
• fires, accidents and dramatic events;
• bellringers and church life;
• railway incidents;
• court cases and disputes;
• soldiers and wartime memories;
• travelling people and visitors to the parish;
• crimes and punishments;
• celebrations and village occasions;
• unusual events remembered long after they happened.

There are also some of the parish’s more unexpected stories — including Captain, the parrot of the New Inn at Coleford, the extraordinary 1991 bellringers’ marathon, the story of the Bell Inn being sold in pieces, fires at the Penstone railway cottages, transportation, village mishaps and other episodes that seldom find their way into conventional history books.

Local history told through stories

Local history is not only a collection of dates, buildings and documents.

It is also made up of the things that happened to ordinary people: the stories repeated around kitchen tables, in pubs, on farms and between neighbours.

Colebrooke Parish Stories was created to preserve that more personal side of the parish’s history.

Each story is accompanied by original illustration, giving the book the feel of a traditional illustrated story collection while remaining firmly rooted in the history of the parish.

The result is a book that can be read from beginning to end or simply opened at any story that catches your interest.

About the book

Title: Colebrooke Parish Stories Subtitle: Lives, events and memories from Colebrooke, Coleford and Penstone Authors: John & Neville Enderson Stories: 101 Format: A4 colour hardback ISBN: 978-1-80897-112-9

Buy Colebrooke Parish Stories

Buy Colebrooke Parish Stories on Amazon

Buy Colebrooke Parish Stories from The Great British Bookshop

Which Colebrooke book should I choose?

The books have been deliberately created to complement one another.

Choose Colebrooke Parish — Volume I if you are primarily interested in the history of particular farms, houses, properties, families and places within Colebrooke Parish.

Choose Colebrooke Parish Stories if you enjoy the people, memories, unusual events and individual stories that bring local history to life.

For anyone with a strong connection to Colebrooke, Coleford or Penstone, the two books together provide a much broader picture: one records the parish and its places, while the other preserves many of the human stories that happened within them.

Researching Colebrooke, Coleford or Penstone?

Colebrooke.org contains a growing collection of freely available material about the history and heritage of the parish.

You can explore articles covering local families, buildings, churches, farms, village life and events elsewhere on this website.

Some of the subjects appearing in the books can also be explored through the site’s existing local-history articles.

Explore Colebrooke Parish history

Preserving Colebrooke Parish history

The aim of both books — and of the historical material on Colebrooke.org — is to preserve information that could otherwise gradually disappear.

Old photographs lose their identities. Local names fall out of use. Memories vanish when the people who remember them are gone. Farms change hands, buildings are altered and documents become increasingly difficult to connect with the places they describe.

By combining documentary research with photographs, maps, records and first-hand local knowledge, we hope to leave a lasting record of Colebrooke, Coleford and Penstone for residents, descendants, family historians and anyone interested in this corner of Devon.

John & Neville Enderson

Colebrooke Parish, Devon