Beer Devon Family History Guide
Status: Chapelry
Alternative names: Seaton St Michael
Seaton and Beer St Michael
Parish church:
Parish registers begin:
- Parish registers: 1880; see also Seaton
- Bishop’s Transcripts: None
Nonconformists include:
- Independent/Congregational
Adjacent Parishes
- Southleigh
- Seaton
- Branscombe
- Colyton
Historical Descriptions
The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870
BEER, a village and a tything in Seaton parish, Devon. The village stands on the coast, in a romantic cove, 1½ mile SW of Axmouth; has a post office under Axminster; carries on fishing and lace-making; and was noted, in former days, for smuggling. It was the birthplace of the notorious Jack Rattenbury, sometimes called the Rob Roy of England; and it produced the wedding dress of Queen Victoria in 1839. The cove around it is a fine subject for the pencil. Beer Head, projecting on the west, is crowned by two natural towers; and Beer quarry, about a mile inland, is a labyrinth of excavations, about ¼ of a mile long, and about 300 feet below the surface of the ground. The tything includes the village, and forms a curacy with the vicarage of Seaton in the diocese of Exeter. Pop., 1,157. Houses, 260. The church consists of nave, chancel, and aisles. There are an Independent chapel, and charities £210.
Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].
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Administration
County: Devon
Civil Registration District: Axminster
Probate Court: Court of the Bishop (Consistory) of the Archdeaconry of Exeter
Diocese: Exeter
Rural Deanery: Honiton
Poor Law Union: Axminster
Hundred: Colyton
Province: Canterbury