Brushford

Brushford is a village and civil parish in the West Somerset district of Somerset, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 535 with 243 occupied households . The village is about 12 miles north of Tiverton and is on the edge of the Exmoor National Park.

Brushford Churchyard
© 2010 Mike Watson www.mike-watson.co.uk

It has an aisleless church, interesting for (1) a good 15th-cent. screen, (2) a font, of which the bowl and base date from the 13th cent. There is a splendid oak tree in the churchyard, which is reputed to be 600 years old.

The church of St Nicholas dates largely from the 15th or early 16th century. It is remarkable for the north chapel built by Lutyens in 1926 and the recumbent effigy of Colonel Aubrey Herbert (d. 1923) by Cecil de Banquiere Howard of Paris.

Once a resident of Brushford with recordings in www.somerset.gov.uk/ archives/exmoor/troake.htm

Brushford's small church, St. Nicholas, is worth visiting, with its medieval screen, 13th century font and possibly the oldest parish chest in the country, hollowed from a tree trunk.

The modern side chapel contains an effigy of Colonel Aubrey Herbert, said to be the model for Greenmantle in John Buchanan's novel of that name.

Brushford parish straddles the boundary of the National Park in Somerset. Only a small amount falls within the National Park: a few acres of meadow between the B3222 and the River Barle.

The name Brushford probaly derives from bridge by the ford, as it was Briggeford in 1270, but may have something to do with brush wood as it was Brucheford in the Domesday Book.

Brushford Church

Brushford Lying on the southern edge of the Exmoor National Park, with hills rising to 800 feet. Iit was previously a mainly rural community, with cattle market and corn mills but development during the 1930s and led to Brushford to become a working
village with service industries and also tourism.

Plaque under a tree in Brushford Churchyard

Deatials on the Plaque under a tree in Brushford Churchyard

Brushford church features a richly carved rood screen and an Early English font. It also owns a very old parish chest formed from a hollowed tree trunk. It hhasa chapel dedicated in 1926  to St Mary the Virgin and designed by Sir Edward Lutyens. It holds an effigy of Colonel Aubrey Nigel Henry Molyneux Herber who lived at Pixton Park in Dulverton. The chapel has unusual apricot coloured glass.

Nearby is the track bed of the Devon and Somerset Railway which ran from Taunton to Barnstaple. This section was completed in 1873. The Devon and Somerset Railways was purcased by the Great Western Railway in 1901 and the line was closed to passeengers in 1966 following the Beeching Report

Contributed by: John Jarvis, Julie Christian