Challacombe is located within North Devon local authority area. Historically it formed part of Sherwill Hundred. It falls within Sherwill Deanery for ecclesiastical purposes. The Deaneries are used to arrange the typescript Church Notes of B.F.Cresswell which are held in the Westcountry Studies Library. The population was 158 in 1801 195 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website. In 1641/2 38 adult males signed the Protestation returns.
A parish history file is held in South Molton Library. You can look for other material on the community by using the place search on the main local studies database. Further historical information is also available on the Genuki website.
Maps: The image below is of the Challacombe area on Donn's one inch to the mile survey of 1765.
On the County Series Ordnance Survey mapping the area is to be found on 1:2,500 sheet 6/16,10/4 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 6SE,10NE
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SS692408. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SS64SE, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Outdoor Leisure 09, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 180. Geological sheet 293 also covers the area.
Extract from Devon by W.G.Hoskins (1954), included by kind permission of the copyright holder:
CHALLACOMBE means "cold valley." It is a large moorland parish with scattered farms, of which Barton Town, Whitefield Barton, Radworthy, and Wallover Barton represent small Domesday manors. The last-named was "the farm of the Britons" and was probably a settlement of Celtic farmers which continued into Saxon times. The parish church (Holy Trinity) was completely rebuilt in 1850, except the W. tower, and again restored in 1874-5. It contains nothing of any age or interest except the font.
The upland moors of the parish have many groups of barrows, especially to the N. on Challacombe Common, where Chapman Barrows, extending into Lynton parish, form a group of a dozen large tumuli, some 12 ft. high and 300 ft. around. They are probably of Bronze Age date. In the SE. of the parish is Shoulsbarrow Castle ( 1,528 ft.), commanding magnificent views over North Devon. It is a square earthwork, protected by a second valIum on the N. and E. sides, but its age and purpose are uncertain. There is a tradition that Alfred held it against the Danes. (V.C.H. Devon, 595-6.)