South Molton, so called to distinguish it from the village of North Molton, is an ancient market and borough town, pleasantly situated upon an eminence near the west side of the river Mole. Previous to the Conquest it formed part of the demesnes of Edward the Confessor; but in the reign of Edward I. belonged to William Lord Martyn, who held it by the service of providing a man with a bow and three arrows to attend the Earl of Gloucester when hunting in the neighbourhood. The church is a spacious and handsome fabric containing several good monuments and a large organ. The Guildhall is a convenient building, and the market-place extensive and well- built. Many of the inhabitants are employed in the manufacture of serges, shalloons, and felts, and in procuring lime from the various pits in the vicinity. Here is a free-school for the children of the more respectable inhabitants, and a charity-school, &c. for the others: in the former the late Judge Buller was taught the rudiments of that extensive knowledge which rendered him an ornament to his profession. "

A free-school was founded and endowed here in 1614. According to the return of 1821, the number of houses here were 572, and the inhabitants 3050. The market is held on Saturday.

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SOUTH MOLTON is an ancient market town, municipal borough, parish, head of a petty sessional division, union and county court district, with a station one mile north of the town on the Devon and Somerset branch of the Great Western railway, and is at the junction of the roads from Bampton, Tiverton and Crediton to Barnstaple; 12 miles south-east from Barnstaple, 18 north-west from Tiverton, 20 north-west from Crediton, 27 north-north-west from the city of Exeter, 35 west from Taunton and 197 from London by railway, via Exeter, while the distance by road from London is only 182 miles; it is in the Northern division of the county, hundred and rural deanery of South Molton, archdeaconry of Barnstaple and diocese of Exeter.

The town is recorded as a borough as early as 1301; Queen Elizabeth granted it a charter in 1590, which was confirmed and enlarged by Charles II. whose charter remained in force until the passing, of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835 (5 and 6 William IV. c. 76), and the Corporation now consists of sixteen members, viz.:-a mayor, four aldermen and twelve common councilmen. The borough has a commission of the peace and separate court of quarter sessions, and petty sessions are held here for the South Molton division.

South Molton derives its name from the river Mole, on the western bank of which it is situated: this considerable stream is utilised to propel the machinery of the shirt and collar factory in the town, and of the great number of corn mills on its banks, connected here by a substantial bridge of one arch, built in place of one destroyed by a storm in October, 1841; the stream eventually falls into the river Taw, about 8 miles from the town. Broad street, East street, South street and West street are the principal thoroughfares. It is well lighted with gas, from works purchased by the Corporation in 1896, for £3,300, and was completely drained in 1868, and in 1869 the council of the borough established a water supply at a cost of £6,000, one half of the amount being given from the Corporate funds: the reservoir is at Holywell, in North Molton parish, near Exmoor, 5 miles north of the town, and the water obtained is remarkably pure; the filter beds were given by the late Alderman Smyth.

The Devon and Somerset branch of the Great Western railway, 42 ½ miles in length, from Taunton to Barnstaple, passes through the parish: a viaduct, nearly a quarter of a mile in length and 100 feet high, carries it over the river Bray in Castle Hill park. The Municipal Charity Trustees have improved and widened the road leading from the town to the station, a sum of £750 having been expended for that purpose.

The church of St. Mary Magdalene is an edifice of stone in the Perpendicular style, enlarged in 1829 and restored and repaired in the year 1865, at a cost of £3,300, when it was re-roofed and reseated: it now consists of chancel with aisles, nave, aisles, shallow south transept, south porch, and an embattled western tower, with pinnacles, containing a clock and 8 bells; there are ten stained windows, some good monuments and a very fine carved stone pulpit: the north aisle of the chancel retains two piscinae: a new organ was erected in 1900, choir stalls added, and the chancel paved with marble, at a total cost of £1,139: there are 1,060 sittings. The register dates from the year 1601. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £270, with residence, in the gift of the Dean and Canons of Windsor, and held since 1876 by the Rev. Frederick King M.A. Trinity College, Cambridge, chaplain to S. Molton union, and surrogate. The impropropriate tithes, commuted at £910, are vested in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and there is also a considerable glebe, the freehold of which has been bought by the Town Council.

The. Congregational chapel was erected in 1834, on the site of the old church of 1700. There are 450 sittings.

The Wesleyan Methodist chapel, at the top of Duke street, erected in 1882—3 at a cost of £1,800, on the site of the old chapel built in 1821, is a building of stone, with dressings of Hambdon and Doulton stone, in the Florid Gothic style, and has sittings for 350 persons; in the rear of the chapel are schoolrooms.

The Baptist chapel is of stone, and affords sittings for 250 persons; the Mission hall, formerly a Primitive Methodist chapel, built in 1889, has 300 sittings; there is also a Bible Christian chapel, seating 180 persons, and a chapel for the Brethren, holding about 200 persons.

The Cemetery, in Mill street, opened in 1856, and since enlarged, covers an area of nearly four acres; there are two chapels, and a lodge for the keeper was built in 1882; it is under the control of a burial board of nine members.

The Guildhall is a building of Portland stone in the Italian style, and includes a turret containing a clock with three dials; the Council chamber is built on arches, projecting into the street.

The municipal insignia include two maces, a mayor’s chain and badge, a staff of office and a common seal. The maces, of silver gilt, and 2 feet 4 inches long, form a pair, and are similar in every respect; the shafts are divided into two parts by an ornamental knob, and the bases are enriched with leaf-work, the beads are ornamented with the national emblems and crowns and mitres, boldly executed, and have a cresting of crosses and fleurs-de-lis, from which rise arched crowns, with the usual orb and cross; the mayor’s chain consists of plain geld links; the badge is a gold medallion, bearing a portrait of Hugh Squier, merchant, of London, a great benefactor to the town; the staff of office, 6 feet 8 inches long, is of wood, and has a mitre-shaped silver head with the representation of a fleece surmounted by a royal crown; the borough seal, of silver, also exhibits a fleece, with a crown in chief and a mitre in base; around is a legend and the date 1716; the mayor wears a robe of scarlet and fur.

The Working Men’s Reading Room, instituted by the daughters of the late Alderman Smyth, is governed by a committee of members and is supported by members’ fees and voluntary contributions.

The Market-house was erected in 1863. The market days are Thursday and Saturday.

Cattle markets are held the first Thursday in every month. Fairs are held on the third Wednesday in June and the Wednesday after August 25th.

The early closing day is on Wednesday, at 3 p.m.

The Assembly Rooms, which occupy the upper storey of the New Market, are elegant and spacious, and will hold 400 persons; they are used for concerts, entertainments and public meetings, for which they ere exceedingly well adapted.

There is a sawing mill near the Railway station; a shirt collar and blouse factory, a tannery and leather dressing establishment, in East street, coach building works, and the agricultural implement and engineering works of the Star Agricultural Engineering Co. Limited.

The South Molton Race Meeting, over the Kingsland course, is held on the Thursday after the old fair in August. The Kennels of the South Molton Subscription Harriers are situated here.

The County Police Station in South street, is a fine building, with spacious offices, and quarters for sergeants and constables, and was erected in 1894 at a cost of about £2,500.

The South Molton Municipal charities are under the control of the Municipal Charity Trustees, and include the Whittle, Gibbon, Bawden, and other gifts, consisting together of £764 os. 7d. Consols, producing an income of £21 0s. 2d. which is distributed in money to the poor at Candlemas and Christmas yearly. The Acland, Webber, Palmer, Courtney, Brown, and other gifts, consisting unitedly of £273 5s. 5d. Consols and certain annuities, producing an income of £14 1s. 10d. are distributed to the poor in 42 twopenny loaves at the church after morning service on Sundays during the winter half of the year, and 13 twopenny-halfpenny loaves weekly during the year. Nott Hole and Palmer’s gift of £53 15s. 11d. in Consols, producing £1 9s. 4d. yearly, is periodically distributed in money to such poor persons of the town and parish as are not in receipt of parochial relief. Harewood’s gift of £164 10s. in Consols, producing £4 10s. 5d. yearly, is distributed to the poor. Rashleigh’s gift consisted up to 1899 of one moiety of a freehold estate, called “Snapdown,” in Warkleigh, Devon, let at the rent of about £41, but in that year a moiety of the estate was sold by public auction, and realised the sum of £305, which sum, together with £61 7s. 7d. being a moiety of the proceeds of the sale of timber sold from Snapdown Farm in 1896, and a sum of £193 15s. a moiety of the amounts received from the insurance company in respect of three fires at Snapdown Farm buildings, made together a sum of £560 2s. 7d. which has been invested by the Charity Trustees in the name of the Official Trustees of Charitable Funds in the purchase, of £166 16s. Bank of England stock, yielding an annual income of £17 8s. and the dividends arising from £761 1s. 11d. Consols, the yearly income amounting to £20 18s. which, pursuant to an order of the Charity Commisioners, obtained in 1882, is applied either to the payment of the tuition fees of a limited number of children at the South Molton United Schools, or to the payment of exhibitions, called “The Rashleigh Exhibitions,” of such yearly value as shall from time to time be determined by the Charity Trustees, tenable either at the said schools or at any place of education higher than elementary, or of technical, professional, or industrial instruction, approved by the trustees. Hugh Squier’s gift consisted up to Michaelmas. 1882, of a moiety of the clear surplus income arising from the rectory of Northam and freehold estate in the parish of Swimbridge, producing an income of £220 a year, but the lease of the rectory having expired, the income now consists of a moiety of the surplus income of the freehold estate called Upcott in Swimbridge, Devon, and the dividends of a sum of £2,315 6s. 8d. Consols, which sum is made up of accumulations of income by the trustees; the yearly income, now (1901) amounting to £63 13s. 5d. pursuant to an order of the Charity Commissioners, obtained in Jan. 1883, is applicable to the maintenance and repairs of the highways, streets, bridges, foot and causeways, in South Molton, or in making grants of a moderate amount in aid of the cost of any suitable public works in the town. John Venner, late of South Molton, china dealer, by his will, dated 11th January, 1889, gave to the Charity Trustees £10, but without any directions as to how the same, or the income thereof should be applied: the whole sum (less duty) was invested on deposit receipt in the South Molton branch of the National Provincial Bank of England, the amount so invested, with the accumulations, amounting together to £10 13s. 6d. was in 1898 applied towards the cost of re-pointing the church tower. The Blue Coat Schools, up to a few years ago, were possessed of £2,465 and £900 Consols, which sums, with the sanction of the Charity Commissioners, were amalgamated with the funds of the South Molton United Schools. (See under Schools).

The manor of South Molton was formerly part of the demesnes of Edward the Confessor; and Risdon informs us it was held by William Lord Martyn, on condition of his providing a man with a bow and three arrows to attend Hugh (Audley) Earl of Gloucester when hunting in the neighbourhood: it was subsequently held by Lord Audley; on the death of his male heir, in the reign of Richard H. it reverted to the Crown, “since when,” says Risdon, “the burgesses have bought the borough, which has a mayor for its chief magistrate.”

The Recreation. Ground, near the Barnstaple road, contains over 5 acres.

The area is 5,896 acres of land and 34 of water; rateable value, £13,057; the population in 1891 was 3,126, and in 1901, 2,848, including 77 officers and inmates in the workhouse.

Close to Honiton Barton farm house are the ruins of a chapel, erected in 1730 and dedicated to the Holy Trinity.

The detached portion of the borough lying 1 ½ miles south was made a civil parish March 8th, 1900, and called QUEENSNYMPTON.

Petty Sessions are held at the Guildhall on the third Tuesday in each month at 11 a.m..; meetings also held at Chulmleigh bi-monthly & North Tawton quarterly.

The following places are included in the petty sessional division:-Anstey East, Anstey West, Ashreigney, Bishopsnympton, Bondleigh, Brushford, Buckland East, Buckland West, Burrington, Charles, Chawleigh, Cheldon, Chittlehampton, Chittlehamholt, Chulmleigh, Coleridge, Creacombe, Eggesford, Filleigh, Georgenympton, Kingsnympton, Knowstone, Lapford, Mariansleigh, Meshaw, Molland, North Molton, North Tawton, Nvmet Rowland, Queensnympton, Rackenford, Romansleigh, Rose Ash, Satterleigh & Warkleigh, Thelbridge, Twitchen, Wembworthy, Winkleigh, Witheridge, & Worlington East.

IMPERIAL YEOMANRY

Royal North Devon (Hussars) (C or South Molton squadron); Capt. R. A. Sanders, commanding; Capt. M. De Las Casas, 2nd in command; Squadron-Sergt.-Major E. S. Wells, drill instructor.

VOLUNTEERS

4th Volunteer Battalion, Devonshire Regiment (G Company), Armoury, East street; Capt. W. H. Speke; Surgeon-Lieut. F. W. Kendle, medical officer; Rev. F. King M.A., V.D. acting chaplain; Philip Welch, sergt.-instructor.

SOUTH MOLTON UNION

Board day, every alternate Thursday, at 11 a.m.. at the Board room, Workhouse.

The union comprises the following parishes, viz.:-Anstey (East), Anstey (West), Bishopsnympton, Buckland (East), Buckland (West), Burrington, Charles, Cheldon, Chittlehamholt, Chittlehampton, Chulmleigh, Creacombe, Filleigh, Georgenympton or Nymet St. George, Kingsnympton, Knowstone, Mariansleigh, Meshaw, Molland, North Molton, Queensnympton, South Molton, Rackenford, Romansleigh, Roseash, Satterleigh & Warkleigh, Twitchen, Witheridge & Worlington (East). The population of the Union in 1901 was 13,812; area, 123,343 acres; rateable value in 1901, £96,481.

The Workhouse, New Barnstaple Road, is a building of stone, erected in 1837, at a cost of £4,500, & will hold 230 inmates; the north wing was destroyed by fire in 1892, but was rebuilt in 1896 for 62 inmates and 6 officials.

PLACES OF WORSHIP, with times of Services

St. Mary Magdalene Church, Rev. Frederick King M.A. vicar; Rev. James Day, curate; 8 & 10.30 a.m.. 3 & 6.30 p.m.; Wed. 11 a.m.

Chapel of Ease, Clapworthy mill, The Vicar of Chittlehamtpon.

Baptist, New road, Rev. Harry Herbert Turner; 10.30 a.m.. & 6.30 p.m.; Wed. 8 p.m.

Bible Christian, East street. Rev. James Bendle; 8 a.m.. 3 & 6.30 p.m.; Mon. 7.30 p.m.; Fri. 8 p.m.

Congregational, Rev. John Preece Rawlings; 10.30 a.m.. & 6.30 p.m.; Mon. & Wed. 7.30 p.m.

Brethren, South street, 10.30 a.m.. & 6.30 p.m.; Tue. 7.30 p.m.

Wesleyan, Methodist, Duke street, Rev. W. Rhode Davies & Rev. Charles Cooke; 10.30 a.m.. & 6.30 p.m.; Wed. 7.30 p.m.

Mission Hall, East street; Sun. 6.30 p.m.

Mission (Undenominational), Stag’s Head; 3 & 6.30 p.m.

SCHOOLS

The South Molton United Schools, in North street, were amalgamated in 1877, and consist of (1) Squier’s school endowed by Hugh Squier in 1682: (2) the Blue Coat Schools, established in 1711, which were possessed of £2,465 & £900 Consols: (3) the National Schools, established 1833. The Rev. Hugh Mare Passmore bequeathed £3,000, & Mr. John Brown £19 19s. to the schools, which are governed by a body of 18 members; Joseph Kingdon, secretary & treasurer: the schools will hold 450 children; average attendance, 150 boys & 121 girls.

Art School, North street, Frederick William Gafd, headmaster.

British, New road (infants), for 150 children; average attendance, 77.