Ashreigney

I have not done a concordance of locations for the Devon sections of the family tree, but I noticed that Ashreigney was mentioned at least once, regarding the paternal grandfather of my great grandmother Hilda Cole:

William Cole m. Elizabeth Squire 21-Feb-1850, Ashreigney

Also, Hilda's maternal grandfather John Cole was born in Wringsash in 1930 - a location Google refuses to acknowledge.  This was something I wanted to investigate.

Ashreigney isn't too far from North Tawton, but my mother was concerned I'd be stuck behind a tractor on a single-track country lane for an hour, and wouldn't get the car back in time for a funeral.

No problem, as it turned out - I took the largest road, which led me most of the way.  Then asked at a petrol station (one of the few in Devon!) and double-backed half a mile to one of those small country lanes.  Three miles inwards and I was there.

...where?  This was the smallest village I've seen so far.  No shops, post office or anything - just a few houses around a village square, an old stone hall, a church, and an old lady who turned out to be half-blind and half-deaf and was as easy to query as you'd expect.  So I chose the church.

Ashreigney

The church is smaller than most, as befits the village - but it still looked impressive, by Australian standards.

I found plenty of graves of Coles, Harrises and Squires - no direct relatives found, but they could have been brothers and sisters of my ancestors.

John Cole 1777 - 1859

                                

                                   John Squire 1828 - 1902

I'll be contacting the church warden to see if the parish register is kept onsite for events prior to the 1850s - older registers are often sent to archives in Exeter.

afterwards, dark weather sprang up... because yet again I went around the church widdershins

Meanwhile, I cleared up the mystery of why I couldn't find a place called Wringsash.  Helen, who was on duty at the church, told me Ashreigney used to be called Ringsash - in fact, this comes from Ring's Ash, and is mentioned in the Domesday Book.  I'll report back when I find out more.

Cole Close, Ashreigney