England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Nymet Rowland St Bartholomew

The Parish

The parish of Nymet Rowland lies in central Devon about 10 miles northwest of the market town of Crediton. Nymet Rowland is a small village which sits a half mile west of the A377 road which connects Crediton with the port of Barnstaple. Nymet Rowland sits high on a ridge overlooking the valley of the River Taw along which runs the modern development of the Barnstaple to Exeter rail line, a much loved branch line which escaped the closures of the late 20th century. Nymet Rowland would have been, and indeed still is, a small pastoral farming community with cattle the mainstay. Just north of Nymet Rowland is the confluence of the Taw with the Yeo, the joint stream flowing as the Taw northwestwards to reach the external Bristol Channel through the joint estuary of Taw & Torridge. Nymet Rowland is sited at around 120 metres above the sea in strongly undulating countryside, it sits some 50 metres above the Taw and local heights rise, within a mile or so, to almost 200 metres at Forches Cross. Nymet Rowland parish was one of the smallest in extent in Devon, indeed there cannot be many rural parishes with a smaller area, it covered under 500 acres and would have had a meagre population of around 100 parishioners. In Domesday times Nymet Rowland was equally small, one of the many possessions of Baldwin the Sheriff it could offer just 4 ploughs together with small meadows, pastures & woodlands but did, at that time, possess a mill.

The Church

St Bartholomew's church sits towards the western end of the village on the northern side of the lane which runs down the steep hill to the Taw bridge. A small church as befits the size of the congregation the majority of the fabric dates from the 15th century and follows the Perpendicular style of that era. A small remnant remains to indicate, however, that there may have been an earlier version, the undecorated arch of the southern doorway is styled as Norman Romanesque and probably comes from the 12th century. Two significant Victorian restorations changed much of the church, the first in 1874 rebuilt all of the eastern wall whilst the second in 1889 was a more general restoration. The church sits next to a farm on the narrow lane with just enough space for a car without blocking the latter's entranceway. The churchyard is bound by a local stone wall with hedging atop, entrance from the farm entrance leads to a churchyard which tightly encloses the church making the best angles difficult to achieve from within.