Clovelly

For other places with the same name, see Clovelly (disambiguation).

Clovelly
The village sits 400-feet (120-metre) above the harbour and Bideford Bay
Clovelly Location within Devon
Population	443 - Whole parish (2011)
OS grid reference	SS315245
District	Torridge
Shire county	Devon
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BIDEFORD
Postcode district	EX39
Dialling code	01237
Police	Devon and Cornwall
Fire	Devon and Somerset
Ambulance	South Western
UK Parliament	Torridge and West Devon

Clovelly (/kləˈvɛli/) is a harbour village in the Torridge district of Devon, England. Its steep pedestrianised cobbled main street, traditional architecture, donkeys and views over the Bristol Channel attract numerous tourists. At the 2011 census, the parish population was 443, which was 50 fewer than ten years previously. The ward of Clovelly Bay includes the island of Lundy.

An entrance fee is charged to enter the village via a village visitor centre which also charges for parking, entrance to two museums, Clovelly Court gardens, and an audiovisual history guide.

The village is privately owned, by John Rous as of March 2021; he inherited in 1983. The village "has mainly been in the Hamlyn family since 1738", and he is of that line.

History

Lower part of the village, from the harbour wall

The area has had human habitation since the Iron Age as there is a hillfort at Windbury Head northwest of the village. Following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the Manor of Clovelly was acquired by William the Conqueror from its Saxon tenant. It was listed in the Domesday Book as "Clovelie". William would make a gift of the village to his wife Matilda of Flanders.

Two hundred years later during the reign of King Richard II, the Manor of Clovelly was bought by the judge Sir John Cary. The Church of All Saints contains several monuments to the Cary family, who remained the Lords of the Manor for another 400 years. The village remained an agricultural parish until the late 16th century, when the squire, George Cary had the stone breakwater erected creating a harbour. This provided the only safe haven for ships along this stretch of the Devon coast between Appledore and Boscastle. He also erected fish cellars and warehouses at the cliff base and cottages along the banks of the stream that provided the only route to the shore from the plateau above. Cary spent £2,000 turning Clovelly into a fishing village.

The privately-owned village has been associated with only three families since the middle of the 13th century. In 1738, the Clovelly Estate was acquired by the Hamlyn family. In 1901 the village had a population of 521. Clovelly's preservation owes much to Christine Hamlyn who dedicated herself to renovating and expanding the ancient cottages while beautifying the village.

Lifeboat station

Clovelly Lifeboat Station

Main article: Clovelly Lifeboat Station

The village has had an RNLI lifeboat station since 1870. The boathouse cost £175 to build. Between 1899 and 1931, the lifeboat saved 158 lives.

In 1988, the RNLI closed the station. In response, the villagers operated their own rescue service in the interim. In 1998 the RNLI reopened the station. The current lifeboat, an Atlantic 85-class, was installed in 2014. It is named in honour of Toby Rundle, an Oxford student who took his own life in 2010.

Architecture

Almost all the terraced buildings along the village's cobbled street are architecturally listed. More than 50 out of 71 are on the main street itself. Only seven buildings are not listed. The village's only Grade I listed building is the Church of All Saints, parts of All Saints' Church might still have some late Norman. Although its listing summary states, "Virtually all C15 and early C16, restored in 1843 and again in 1884". The Grade II* buildings are numbers 16, and 45–47, 53–54 (53 has the house name Crazy Kate's), and 59–61.

Management

The Clovelly Estate Company owns all of the buildings in the village and is responsible for maintaining the village and preserving its character. The company is led by John Rous, a descendant of the Hamlyn family who lives at Clovelly Court. John Rous is the only son of Keith Rous, the 5th Earl of Stradbroke and Mary Asquith, granddaughter of former prime minister H. H. Asquith. As of 2021, Clovelly included approximately "80 cottages, two chapels, two hotels", woodlands and about 2000 acres of farmland. The village encourages tourism and has been financially successful in that endeavour as of 2019.

Access

Donkeys on the steep main street, outside the village's post office. The slope can be seen by comparing the cobbled street with the (level) slate pavement in front of the shop.

The village main street is not accessible by motor vehicles.

The lack of vehicular access to the main street has led to deliveries being made by sledge. This is not done as a tourist attraction, but as a matter of practicality. Goods are delivered by being pulled down on a sledge from the upper car park, and refuse is collected by being pulled down the hill to a vehicle at the harbour.

The village is served by Stagecoach bus service 319; the route includes Barnstaple, Bideford and Hartland. The South West Coast Path National Trail runs from the top of the village.

Notable residents and cultural references

Clovelly Harbour, Devon by Alfred William Hunt (1830–1896)

The 16th century Carys of Clovelly feature in the historical novel The Grove of Eagles by Winston Graham.

An 18th century chapbook entitled The History of John Gregg and his Family of Robbers and Murderers explains that "Chovaley" (i.e. Clovelly) was once the home of a tribe of fictional cannibalistic bandits. It is alleged that Gregg and his extended family of dozens were eventually tracked down by bloodhounds and were burnt alive in three fires. They were said to have lived in "a cave near the sea-side" and had committed some 1,000 murders. Writer Daniel Codd observes that a stretch of Clovelly Bay is called "the Devil's Kitchen"—"an apt name indeed if there is any truth in the ghoulish story of the Gregg family".

The surgeon Campbell De Morgan (1811–1876), who first speculated that cancer arose locally and then spread more widely in the body, was born here.

J. M. W. Turner's painting of Clovelly Harbour around 1822 hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.

The novelist Charles Kingsley lived here as a child from 1831 to 1836, while his father, Rev. Charles Kingsley, served first as senior curate then as rector. Later, in 1855, his novel Westward Ho! did much to stimulate interest in Clovelly and to boost its tourist trade.

On Sunday, 28 October 1838 twelve fishing vessels with a total of twenty-six men on board left Clovelly Harbour for the fishing grounds. Only one vessel and its crew ever returned after a ferocious storm in the Bristol Channel. This event led to the founding of the Shipwrecked Mariners' Society early the following year with the object of

giving relief and assistance to the widows and orphans of fishermen; and of mariners, members of the Society, who lose their lives by storms and shipwreck on any part of the coasts of the United Kingdom, while engaged in their lawful occupations; and also to render necessary assistance to such mariners, soldiers, or other poor persons as suffer shipwreck upon the said coasts.

Local resident Joseph Harvey Jewell and his wife Mary Ann Jewell were two of only ten passengers to survive the wreck of the General Grant in 1866. Joseph described their experiences in a detailed letter to his father Captain John Jewell, "master mariner" of Clovelly.

The charity is active supporting the seafaring community suffering hardship and distress.

Clovelly is also described by Charles Dickens in "A Message from the Sea" and was painted by Rex Whistler, whose cameos of the village were used on a china service by Josiah Wedgwood.

In Susan Coolidge's In the High Valley (1890), part of the Katy series, a walk into Clovelly is described: "...–surely a more extraordinary thing in the way of a street does not exist in the known world. The little village is built on the sides of a crack in a tremendous cliff; the 'street' is merely the bottom of the crack, into which the ingenuity of man has fitted a few stones, set slant-wise, with intersecting ridges on which the foot can catch as it goes slipping hopelessly down."

Clovelly is mentioned in passing by Rudyard Kipling in Stalky & Co. as being located to the west of the boys' academy.

Actor Joss Ackland and his wife Rosemary bought a property in Higher Clovelly on the outskirts of the village in 1989. Ackland still lives there but Rosemary died in 2002 and is buried in the grounds of their home. Ackland has appeared in promotional videos for the town and has spoken often of his love of and connection to Clovelly.

In 1973 the film Malachi's Cove was shot largely at Clovelly, with some scenes shot at Trebarwith Strand.

See also

• North Devon Coast AONB

Further reading

• Charles Kingsley, Westward Ho!, 1855

External links

• Clovelly - official site
• Clovelly Parish - Official Website, provided by Parish Council
• Genuki Clovelly
• Live webcams of the harbour, beach and main street