Edited Extract from Old Cornwall Journal vol. 8 no 3 Aug1974:

A considerable stream, which flows into the river Tamar, is its border with North Tamerton and another stream, running through the woods of Swannacott and Wadfast on the Western side, marks its boundary with Week St Mary. The line then comes along a minor road to Bevil’s Hill and thence towards the Tamar, which divides Whitstone from Bridgerule. That the parish is well watered is apparent time and time again in the field names on the Tithe Map of 1839. For example, there are Great Marsh and Long Marsh on Lower Downrow; Wetland Meadow in Nethercott; Blacklake Marsh in old Nethercott; Wetleigh and Clayland in East Balsdon

Signs of early settlement appear in the tumuli at Foxhole and Dilland, whilst in the northern part of the parish are the defensive earthworks with single banks at Hilton Wood and Froxton. At the turn of the century, the outlines of Froxton Castle, which covered an area of 160 feet by 145, were less distinct than formerly, because of cultivation. The earthwork in Hilton Wood was oval, measuring 215 feet by 170, with a ramp of 14 feet and a ditch 12 feet deep, then in ood order.

Three manors are recorded in the Domesday Survey, two of which were held by the Count of Mortain; one of these was called Wadafeste, and it had been Siward’s in the time f King Edward.

There was one hide and it rendered geld for 1 ½ virgates. “Six teams can plough this. Hamelin holds this of the Count” Hamelin had one villein, five borders and three serfs, 8 beasts, 30 sheep, 6 swine and 15 goats. There were 15 acres of woodland and 100 acres of pasture, worth 20 shillings yearly. Torna (Thorn) was the Count’s other manor; it had been in the possession of Uleric who held one virgate, rendering geld for half that amount of land, which one team could plough.. Hamelin held Torna also, with a ferling in demesne; the villeins held the remaining land and 2 oxen. He had 3 bordars and one serf, 20 sheep and 4 goats; there were 20 acres of pasture, worth 2 shillings yearly. The 3rd Manor, Forchetestan, (Fprkstone) was held by Judhel de Totenais (Totnes). Previously it had belonged to Alward, but at this time Turstin the Sheriff held it from

Judhel. “Therein are 3 ferlings and it rendered geld for 1 ferling. Three teams can plough this. Therof Turstin has in demesne 1.2 a ferling and ½ a plough and the villeins have the remaining land. There Turstin has 2 bordars and 4 serfs and 8 beasts and 12 swine, 40 acres od wood, 50 acres of pasture. It is worth 11 shillings and when Judhel received t, 15 shillings.”

Geld – a tax paid to the crown.
Virgate – a measure of land approximately 30 acres.
Demense – grounds belonging to the manor.
Villein – a person who owed certain services or rent to the Lord in return for their land.

In the 19th century, the parish was called Whitstone. There were around 500 villagers, and the village had its own ‘Post Office’, and the entire parish comprised around 4,000 acres (16 km2), with part of the Bude Canal passing through the parish.

Mr Edward Mucklow a Lancashire born man who purchased about seven thousand acres of Land in Devon and Cornwall in the 1870’s and who had a home in Whitstone was a much respected ‘Squire’ and held in high esteem by his tenants and the local population.

Wadfast appears on the modern map of Whitstone as the name of a wood And of two farms, Higher Wadfast and Lower Wadfast on the site of the manor house. In 1429, Thomas Halfacre and Agnes his mother and household had a licence for Mass in their chapel of Holy Trinity in Whystone. According to Gilbert, the property belonged in the time of Edward lll to the family of L’Anglois or Emglish and then to the Courtenays, Earls of Devon. It passed from them to the Grenvilles, for Norden calls it the “seat of Geo Grenville Esq.” In 1620 it was held in moieties between Hurdye and Pierce, who transferred it to the Rolles, from whom Lord de Dunstanville bought it; he was the owner in 1820. At the time of the 1851 census Lower Wadfast was farmed by Samuel Bines, employing two men and a boy for its two hundred acres. It was a place of some note and has been called “The Garden of Whitstone”. At a recent sale, Wadfast Moor made “20,000.

In the documents of Tonacom be, there is a reference to Thorne, in the parish of Whitstone, in November 1621 a nd again in 1646, when John Wadden of Tonacom be and Honour, his wife (the daughter and sole heir of Kempthorne als Ley, were in possession. In November 1673, Thorn in Whitson with other lands was to be held for life by Mary Coke, widow, of Truro, at a yearly rental of £120. Two years later, Thomas Wadden conveyed various lands in Whitston to John his son, upon his marriage to Mary: the property was to be entailed on the issue of John and Mary, with portions of “2.000 for any younger children. In 1700, Henry Badcock of Whitstone leased to John Gayer, Gentleman of Thorne for £5 and in 1727 or 1728, Thorne was sold according to the will of Thomas Wadden, to discharge his debts and legacies. At the time of the Tithe Adjustment in 1839, part of Thorne was owned by the Rev. Ponsford Cann, rector of Virginstow and occupied by Daniel D Badcock, who had a fir plantation there: of his 2 hundred acres, four were marshlands, four were taken by roads and wastes. Two fields were called Flack Hay and West Flack Hay: the word “hay” occurs more frequently on the Devon bank of the Tamar, where it signifies a hedge or an enclosure and so, a farm. A further eighty acres were owned by G W Owen Esq. and occupied by D D Bakler: a still smaller part – just over thirty acres – known as Down End Ham, was in the possession of John Gilbert. In the 1851 census, there were two farms known as Thorn and a brick burner was among those living in the area.

The third of the Domesday manors, now known as Froxton, was recorded as Forkedestone in 1250. In the time of Edward ll, it was the property of the Giffards and afterwards passed through heiresses to the families of Downe, Roose and Spoure. In Rodd documents of 1676, the Manor of Forkeston was part of the marriage settlement after the wedding of Edmund Spoure and Mary, one of the daughters of James Rodd of the City of Exeter: her portion was £1.600. The house is illustrated in the Spoure Book, according to Mr Charles Henderson and John Roose Esq. of Forkstone is mentioned also: according to Gilbert, the Roose family became extinct at Whitstone in the mid-sixteenth century and the heiress married Spoure of Trebartha. In Whitstone church there is a large stone monument to “ Magdelene Spoure, daughter of Richard Spoure of Trebartha Esq.: who was buried the 15th day of April AD 1687” From the B3254 the largest house that can be seen is Bennetts, an imposing building of red brick set on rising land and with a wall of similar material surrounding its garden. Gilbert says “the house is modern, but has nothing about it to claim particular attention” In the earlier dwelling lived the Hele family: there is a monument to two of them in the church. The Arms of Hele are shown quartering those of Warwick and Gilbert and the inscription reads “Here lyeth the body of Geo Hele of Bennetts Esq. who was buried 10th day of March 1652. Here lyeth also the body of Warwick Hele Esq. his eldest son, who was buried 4th day Jan 1650”. By 1821 Bennetts was the property and occasional residence of Lord de Dunstanville, whose ancestor had become possessed of it in the late seventeenth century by marriage with the Hele Heiress. Here in 1839, there was a fir plantation and coppice of more than fifteen acres, which accounted for some part of the annual payment to the Rector in lieu of tithe.
Whitstone Whistler October 2004