Old stone bridge with pedestrian refuges over River Culm at Culmstock
Culmstock is a village and civil parishinMid Devon, England, centred 10 miles from Tiverton and 6 NE of Cullompton. It is laid out on both sides of the River Culm; the village is joined by a single old narrow stone bridge across the river. The population of the parish at the 2011 Census was 554.[1] The northern boundary of the parish forms part of the Devon – Somerset border and clockwise from there it is surrounded by the Devon parishes of Hemyock, Uffculme, Burlescombe and Holcombe Rogus.[2]
Historically, in minor matters of law and taxation, Culmstock contributed to Hemyock Hundred. It saw prosperity as a centre of weaving and the wool trade, but this prosperity, and the relative population to that nationally, declined considerably in the latter part of the Industrial Revolution.[3] The population was around 1446 for the forty years before the 1841 census but fell in the next 40 years to 863. In 1961 after a non-linear descent, the population was 692, broadly similar to today's total.[citation needed]
1588 signal station above village at Culmstock Beacon, built to warn of the Spanish Armada.
The village was served by a station on the Culm Valley Light Railway, which connected to one of two main lines leaving the south-west peninsula, at Tiverton Junction. The Light Railway ran from 1876 to 1975, though the last passengers were carried in 1963.[citation needed]
^Sumption, Harold (1995). Yesterday's Trail-Blazing and Pointers for Tomorrow. Harold Sumption remembers... Hertford: Brainstorm Publishing Ltd. ISBN0952695804.
