Ivybridge, Devon

Description
Ivy Bridge, a village and an ecclesiastical parish in Devonshire. The village stands on the river Erme, in a romantic dell, under a hill 1130 feet high, near the S border of Dartmoor, 11 miles E by N of Plymouth, and has a station on the G.W.R. 230 miles from London; it takes its name from an ancient one-arched bridge, formerly embowered in ivy, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office, several good inns and lodging-houses, a church, three dissenting chapels, a mechanics' institute, reading-room, library, masonic hall, and several paper and flour mills. Population of the ecclesiastical parish, 1881. The temperature is very mild. The church of St John was erected in 1882, and is a fine building in the Perpendicular style. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Exeter; gross net value, £150 with residence. The Wesleyan chapel is a very handsome building in the Gothic style, and was erected in 1875 at a cost of £6000. The old bridge near the station is remarkable for having each corner standing in a separate parish. The scenery, particularly along the coast of the Erme, is highly picturesque. Wamer, in his Cornish Tour, says respecting it:-" However warmed my fancy might have been by previous descriptions of the beauties of the river at Ivy Bridge, the actual scene would have realized its most romantic dreams. I confessed that I never before had seen so much variety crowded into so short a distance." Ivy Castle, a quondam fortalice on the E coast of Guernsey, 1 1/2 mile N of St Peter. It is said to have been constructed in 1036 by Robert Duke of Normandy; it appears to have been a place of considerable strength, and it is now represented by only ruined walls, traces of a fosse, and remains of an outer wall and vallum, enclosing about 4 acres.