{{Short description|Village in Devon, England}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}} {{Use British English|date=June 2025}} {{Infobox UK place | static_image_name= Halwell from near Moreleigh, South Devon - geograph.org.uk - 98894.jpg | static_image_alt= | static_image_caption= The village of Halwell as seen from nearby Moreleigh | official_name= Halwell | country= England | region= South West England | os_grid_reference= SX776531 | coordinates = {{coord|50.366|-3.721|display=inline,title}} | post_town= TOTNES | postcode_area= TQ | postcode_district= TQ9 7 | dial_code= 01548 | constituency_westminster= South Hams | civil_parish= Halwell and Moreleigh | shire_district= South Hams | shire_county= Devon }} '''Halwell''' is a village, former parish and former manor, now in the parish of Halwell and Moreleigh, in the South Hams district, in the county of Devon, England.
==Geography== It is located {{convert|5|mi}} south of Totnes, {{convert|6|mi}} north of Kingsbridge and {{convert|8|mi}} west of Dartmouth, on the junction of the A381 and A3122 roads serving the three towns.
== Civil parish == On 1 April 1986 the parish of Moreleigh was merged with Halwell. On 12 July 1990, the new parish was renamed to "Halwell & Moreleigh".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ukbmd.org.uk/reg/districts/newton%20abbot.html|title=Newton Abbot Registration District|publisher=UKBMD|accessdate=31 March 2023}}</ref> In 1961 the civil parish of Halwell (prior to the merge) had a population of 219.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10216746/cube/TOT_POP|title=Population Statistics Halwell AP/CP through time|publisher=Vision of Britain|accessdate=21 January 2019}}</ref>
==Toponymy== The name means "The holy well" and it derives from Old English ''halig'': "holy" plus ''wylle'': "well". It is first attested as ''halganþille'' in a 16th-century copy of an early 10th-century document. Other early forms include ''Halgewill(e)'' and ''Halgh(e)wille'' (14th century or earlier), ''Hallewell'' (c. 1400), and ''Holwell'' (1675).<ref>{{cite book |title=The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names |editor=Victor Watts|year=2004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-16855-7 |page=273}}</ref>
==History== During the Saxon era Halwell was one of the four burhs, or fortified settlements, established in Devon by King Alfred the Great (d.899), King of Wessex from 871 to 899, to defend against invasion by Vikings.<ref>Hoskins, W.G., A New Survey of England: Devon, London, 1959 (first publish1ed 1954), p.104</ref> At that time the other three were Exeter, Pilton (near Barnstaple) and Lydford.<ref>Hoskins, p.104</ref> According to the Burghal Hidage (an early 10th Century document describing all burhs then functioning), Halwell's town wall was 1,237 feet long and the garrison consisted of 300 men who could be drawn from the surrounding district in the event of an invasion. However, by the close of the 11th century<ref>Hoskins, p.104 "within a century" of the 10th century</ref> its status as a burh had been transferred to Totnes, 5 miles to the north and situated on the River Dart, probably because it was better placed for trade at a time when the Viking threat had diminished,{{Citation needed|date=August 2017}} after which the significance of Halwell greatly decreased.
===Descent of the manor=== {{multiple image | align = right | image1 = HalwellArms.svg | width1 = 176 | alt1 = | caption1 = | image2 = Brass ElizabethBray Died1573 WifeOf SirRalphVerney Aldbury Church Hertfordshire.jpg | width2 = 100 | alt2 = | caption2 = | footer = '''left''': Arms of Halwell of Halwell: ''Or, on a bend gules three goats passant argent'';<ref>Pole, Sir William (d.1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, p.486</ref> '''right''': monumental brass in Aldbury Church, Hertfordshire, of Lord Braye's daughter, Elizabeth Bray (d.1573), wife of Sir Ralph Verney. The inescutcheon of pretence of four quarters displays the arms of her heiress mother, Halwell, quartering Norbury, Boteler and Sudeley<ref name="D'Elboux">For heraldry see: {{cite journal |last=D'Elboux |first=Raymond H. |title=The Brooke Tomb, Cobham |journal=Archaeologia Cantiana |volume=62 |year=1949 |pages=48-56, esp. pp.50-1 |url=https://kentarchaeology.org.uk/node/11056}} {{open access}}</ref> }} According to William Pole (died 1635), from the reign of King Edward I the manor was the seat of the de Halgawell family,<ref name="Pole, p.292">Pole, p.292</ref> which resided there for several generations. Sir John Halgawell (or Halliwell) was Steward of the Duchy of Cornwall<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Y_jADwAAQBAJ&dq=John+Halliwell+steward+of+duchy+of+cornwall&pg=PT142 Philip Payton, ''Cornwall: A History'' (Revised and Updated Edition)]</ref> under King Henry VII (1485-1509), and Admiral of the Fleet and a Knight of the Body.<ref>Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd ed. p.266 [https://books.google.com/books?id=8JcbV309c5UC&dq=Norbury+Stoke+Surrey&pg=RA2-PA266]</ref> His son was Richard Halgawell, the last in the male line, who married Joan Norbury, daughter and heiress of John Norbury<ref name="Pole, p.292"/> of Stoke in Surrey.<ref>Risdon, Tristram (d.1640), Survey of Devon, 1811 edition, London, 1811, with 1810 Additions, p.166</ref> His daughter and heiress was Joan Halgawell, who married Edmund Braye, 1st Baron Braye (c.1484-1539) of Eaton Bray in Bedfordshire. Her eventual heiress and inheritor of the manor of Halwell was her second of six daughters, namely Elizabeth Bray (d.1573),<ref>Risdon, p.166</ref> who married Sir Ralph Verney (1509-1546), of Pendley in Tring, Hertfordshire, and of Middle Claydon, Buckinghamshire,<ref>[http://www.histparl.ac.uk/volume/1509-1558/member/verney-edmund-1528-58 HoP biog of son]</ref> whose monumental brasses with heraldic shields survive in the Church of St. John the Baptist, Aldbury, Hertfordshire.<ref>[https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101078047-church-of-st-john-the-baptist-church-of-england-aldbury/photos see images]</ref> On Elizabeth Bray's robe are engraved the arms of Verney (quarterly of four) impaling Bray (quarterly of four: 1&4: Bray modern; 2&3: Bray ancient, all charged with an inescutcheon of pretence of four quarters: 1: ''Or, on a bend gules three goats argent'' (Hallighwell); 2: ''Sable, a chevron between three bull's heads cabossed argent'' (Norbury); 3: ''Gules, a fess chequy argent and sable between six crosslets formée fitchée argent'' (Boteler); 4: ''Or, two bends gules'' (Sudeley).<ref name="D'Elboux"/>
==References== {{reflist}}
Category:Villages in South Hams Category:Former civil parishes in Devon