Woolfardisworthy,_Torridge

Woolfardisworthy, Torridge

Woolfardisworthy, Torridge

Village in Devon, England


Woolfardisworthy (/ˈwʊlzəri/) is a village and civil parish in the Torridge district of Devon, England. The village is accessible via the A39 road, 2 miles (3 km) from the village.

Quick Facts Population, Civil parish ...

Name

The name of the village is a local curiosity, as its pronunciation (and occasional spelling) differs from what one might expect. On local signs, the village is sometimes marked as Woolsery alongside the original name. This is due to the pronunciation of the village's name being /ˈwʊlzəri/. The name also provides evidence for the power of the written word in conserving place-names: the shortened pronunciation is known to have been in use since the 17th century.[3]

According to the Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names (Eilert Ekwall, 4th ed., 1960), the origin of the name is probably "Wulfheard's homestead". The element "worthy" is from Old English worþig, one of several words used by the Anglo-Saxons to denote a homestead, farmstead or small settlement.

Woolfardisworthy (the full name), jointly with a few other places in Devon, has one of the longest place names in England, with 16 letters.

All Hallows Church

In the parish church dedicated to All Hallows is the large monument with effigy to Richard Cole (d.1614) of Buckish within the parish, also of Slade in the parish of Cornworthy, Devon. It is a Grade 1 British Listed Building.[4]

Organisations

The Centre for Fortean Zoology is based here.


References

  1. "Woolsery Parish Council - Home". WPC.
  2. Padel, O. J. (1999). "Place-names". In Kain, Roger; Ravenhill, William (eds.). Historical Atlas of South-West England. Exeter: University of Exeter Press. pp. 88–9. ISBN 0-85989-434-7.
  3. "Church of All Hallows, Woolfardisworthy, Devon". www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk. Listing NGR: SS3322121085. Retrieved 9 May 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link)

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