Plymstock, Devon

Description
Plymstock, a village and a parish in Devonshire. The village stands in a valley, 1 1/2 mile E of the mouth of Catwater Harbour, and has a station on the L. & S.W.R., 231 miles from London. It has a post office under Plymouth; money order and telegraph office, Oreston. The parish contains the villages of Hooe, Elburton, Pomphlett, Staddiscombe, Billacombe, and Oreston, and it includes parts of the shores of Catwater Harbour and Plymouth Sound. Acreage, 3559; population of the civil parish, 3158; of the ecclesiastical, 1794. There is a parish council consisting of fifteen members. It also returns four members to the rural district council. The manor of Plymstock belonged to Childe the Hunter, passed to Tavistock Abbey, and belongs now to the Duke of Bedford. The Royalists made Plymstock their headquarters during much of their action round Plymouth in the wars of Charles I., and had batteries at Oreston and Mount Batten, and a guard at Hooe. There are some extensive fortifications, called Fort Stamford and Fort Staddon, in the parish, and others at Bovisand, Mount Batten, and Turnchapel. Vast quarries, which furnished much of the material for Plymouth Breakwater, are at Oreston, and beautiful veined marble, many curious fossils, and some interesting antiquities have been obtained there. Shipbuilding is carried on at Oreston and Turnchapel. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Exeter; net value, £225 with residence. Patrons, the Dean and Canons of Windsor. The church is Later English, with a tower, and has been well restored. The vicarage of Hooe is a separate benefice. There are a chapel of ease and a Wesleyan chapel at Turnchapel, Congregational and Wesleyan chapels and a chapel of ease at Oreston, and Brethren chapels at Pomphlett and Plymstock.