OS Grid Reference: 50°53'N 4°29'W
Name Origin: The first part is an old Cornish name, perhaps a combination of cil recess and loch pool. The second is Old English -hæmatun, meaning the centre of a village as opposed to the outlying parts, or the chief manor of a large estate.
LAND OF THE KING
The King holds CHILCHETONE. Before 1066 it paid tax for 7 hides. Land for 40 ploughs; in lordship 1 hide; 9 ploughs; 20 slaves. 26 villagers and 23 smallholders with 26 ploughs [and 6 hides Exon]. Meadow, 30 acres; pasture, 5 furlongs long and 4 furlongs wide; woodland, 1 league long and 1 furlong wide. It pays £18 by weight. [50 cattle; 600 sheep; 20 pigs; 40 goats. Exon]
A Topographical Dictionary of England, Samuel Lewis, 1831:
KILKHAMPTON, a parish in the hundred of STRATTON, county of CORNWALL, 3½ miles (N. by E.) from Stratton, containing 1024 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry of Cornwall, and diocese of Exeter, rated in the kings's books at £26. 3. 11½. Lord Carteret was patron in 1810. The church, dedicated to St. James, is remarkable for the singular richness of its architecture, particularly the south doorway, which is a beautiful specimen of the Norman style, exhibiting shafts and bands of zig-zag mouldings, with the beak-headed ornaments; some other portions of the fabric are of much later date: it contains an enriched pulpit, a very ancient font, and several handsome monuments, the most striking of which is one to the memory of the renowned warrior Sir Beville Grenville, Earl of Corbill, and Lord of Thorigny and Grenville, in France and Normandy, descended in a direct line from Robert, second son of Rollo, first Duke of Normandy, and slain in the parliamentary war, at the battle of Landsdown, July 5th, 1643. One of his ancestors, who came over with the Conqueror, is said to have founded the church. This place had anciently a market. There are fairs on Holy Thursday, the third Thursday following, and on August 28th; the first and last are considerable cattle fairs. It is stated that the pious Hervey conceived his 'Meditations among the Tombs' at Kilkhampton.
The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England and Wales, ed J.H.F.Brabner, 1895:
Kilkhampton, a village and a parish in Cornwall. The village stands 2¾ miles W of the river Tamar at the boundary with Devon, 3½ E of the coast near Lower Sharpnose Point, and 10 from Holsworthy station on the L. & S.W.E.; was once a market-town, and has fairs on the Thursday before Ascension Day, first Thursday in July, and 26 August. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office, under Stratton. Acreage, 8189 of land and 199 of water and foreshore; population, 900. The manor belonged, from the Conquest till 1711, to the Granvilles, who became Earls of Bath, went then to the last Earl's aunt, the wife of George, afterwards Lord Carteret, and passed through her to Lord John Thynne. A magnificent mansion, called Stowe, was built on the site of a previous mansion in 1680 by one of the Granvilles, was demolished in 1720, and is now represented by only a moated site. A picturesque ravine, called Combe Valley, commences immediately N of the village, goes thence to the sea, and terminates there between lofty cliffs. The adjacent parts of the coast are grandly picturesque. The reservoir of the Bude Canal is on the border. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Traro; value, £612. with residence. The church is one of the grandest specimens of Perpendicular architecture in Cornwall - a true Cornish church, with three aisles of equal length, very lofty, and enriched with beautiful carving both in roof and on bench ends. Nearly all the windows are filled with stained glass. The south doorway is the only remnant of the ancient Norman church built in the 12th century. The date of the present church is 1567. It was renovated and partly rebuilt by the Rev. Lord John Thynne in 1860. There is a village reading-room.
Kilkhampton stands 600 feet above the sea, three miles south of Morwenstow. It is a large attractive village in the heart of "Grenville country"- Sir Richard (cousin of Walter Raleigh and friend of Sir Francis Drake) was born here in the 16th Century and Sir Bevil in the 17th Century. Nearby Stowe Barton was the house of the Grenville family. It was built on the site of Stowe House, once one of the most magnificent homes in England and described by Charles Kingsley in "Westward Ho!". The church, standing in the village street by a quaint courtyard of cottages, speaks eloquently of heraldry, and it is obvious that rich men have lavished their wealth upon it. It contains some of the finest work in Cornwall, from its Norman south doorway to its large collection of bench-ends and fine window tracery of the 15th and 16th centuries.
Associated Families: Adams Berriman Ham Martyn Sharsell.
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