Northlew

Coordinates: 50°46′20″N 4°07′16″W / 50.7721°N 4.1212°W / 50.7721; -4.1212

Northlew
Thatched cottage and parish church at Northlew
Northlew  Northlew shown within Devon
Population	592 [1](2001 Census)
OS grid reference	SX504991
- London	207 miles (333 km)
Parish	Northlew
District	West Devon
Shire county	Devon
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	OKEHAMPTON
Postcode district	EX20
Dialling code	01409
Police	Devon and Cornwall
Fire	Devon and Somerset
Ambulance	South Western
EU Parliament	South West England
UK Parliament	Torridge and West Devon
Website	http://www.northlew.com/
List of places: UK • England • Devon

Northlew is a village and civil parish in the West Devon district of the county of Devon, England, located at 50.77° N 4.12° W, UK National Grid reference SX5099. The post code for the village post office is EX20 3NZ.

To the west of the village, but within the parish, are the hamlets of West Kimber and East Kimber.

Geography and history

The village is approximately 7 miles (11 km) northwest of the town of Okehampton, and most places in the village have excellent views over Dartmoor. The village is relatively isolated, not being served by any main roads. It has an attractive main square surrounded by traditional buildings, some of them thatched; just off the square are a pub, the local primary school and two churches, the Church of England parish church of Saint Thomas of Canterbury and the Methodist church (originally Bible Christian). The ecclesiastical parish of Northlew has been combined with the neighbouring village of Ashbury, and since the school is a Church of England voluntary controlled school, it bears the name of both villages.

The hamlet of Crowden is on the Highampton side of the village.

Historically, Northlew formed part of Black Torrington Hundred. It gets its name from the ancient manor of Lew, mentioned in the Domesday Book; the village of Lewdown and the River Lew are nearby. The village has the melancholy distinction of having lost the highest proportion of its enlisting population of any municipality in the United Kingdom during the First World War: of 100 men who enlisted in the forces, 24 died. A stone memorial to them was recently erected in the churchyard, replacing wooden memorial tablets within the church.

Legend has it that the devil died of the cold in Northlew. There is a stone in the village that represents where the devil is meant to have died.^[2]

Song

The village features in the song The Bellringing popularised by Tony Rose.^[3]

Broadband

Northlew was one of the many areas in the UK who were unable to connect to broadband via conventional means. Early in 2009, Christopher Marson spearheaded a campaign to bring the service to Northlew and Belstone with the help of 4 other villagers. They obtained funding and on Christmas Eve 2009 the system went live. Over 60% of the village is now connected to this system and still expanding.

References

1. ^ Neighbourhood Statistics - Parish Headcounts
2. ^ Hervey, W.R. "The Place where the Devil died of Cold": the histories of the united parishes of Northlew and Ashbury. "United by Order in Council". Typescript (1876) 169p. [Westcountry Studies Library - sB/NOR 6/0001/PLA]
3. ^ "The Bellringing". http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/tony.rose/songs/thebellringing.html. Retrieved 2009-05-24. 

External links

• Village website
• Broadband For Northlew
• Northlew Community Page on the Devon Libraries Local Studies Service web site
• Devon Roots page about Northlew - prepared by a genealogical enthusiast
• Northlew and Ashbury Parochial Primary School web site
• Map showing Northlew from www.streetmap.co.uk