Updated 1st June, 2024.
The Vellacott Photo and Document Archive is also in development on https://hoaroakcottage.org/vellacott-photo-archive/
The Vellacotts have a long history in North and North West Devon including property and farmland in and around Lynton. Their ownership of the farms in the Furzehill area, near Barbrook and on the edge of the original Royal Forest of Exmoor, included several shepherd’s huts. These huts were used to house shepherds responsible for the sheep sent up onto the high moors for summer pasturing – part of local farmers’ “commoners rights” on the Royal Forest. The shepherd’s huts would have been very simple, single room buildings used only during the summer months. Benjamy, Folly and Hoar Oak were all such shepherds huts owned and used by the Vellacotts. Benjamy stayed a shepherds hut and is now a ruin. Folly became a full time home for a short period of time but Hoar Oak Cottage was turned into a permanent family home. Over time it was extended and grew into a substantial building with outbuildings and 25 acres of land around it.
The reason for it becoming a permanent ‘farm’ with ‘farm buildings’ may be linked to the era when the Royal Forest of Exmoor was being surveyed and sold off into private hands by the Crown Commissioners. Careful surveying and record making of the land around the edge of the Forest was underway. This was the land traditionally available to local farmers to use under their “common rights.” As part of the sale of the Royal Forest of Exmoor, formal arrangements were made to transfer those rights, for three generations, to the local land owners to compensate them for their loss of their commoners rights. At the time of the sale, in 1818, the Vellacotts were awarded the Hoar Oak allotment. See images below. But the timings show that the Vellacotts may have been assuring their claim to the hut and the land around it by turning the hut into a cottage which was the first home of newlyweds Charles and Elizabeth Vellacott.
By the time the Royal Forest was sold officially to John Knight – a wealthy Midland’s industrialist and MP for Worcester – in 1818, the Vellacotts were using their old shepherd’s hut as a permanent home for their farm workers and/or family. Perhaps a coincidence. Perhaps a cunning plan to ensure they were formally allotted the land as part of the sale of the Royal Forest.
The images below are from the original Award Document and Map showing the allotments linked to the sale of the Royal Forest with the sections pertaining to the Vellacott’s award highlighted.
The complete map is shown below left with a close up of the relevant northwest part (below right) showing Allotments 279 and 280 which were allotted to the Vellacott family. The notation on the map reads ‘Hoar Oak Inclosure’. Below is an image of the relevant section of The Award document indicating the three generations of Vellacotts receiving the allotment around Hoar Oak cottage.
These documents are held in The National Archives Kew and thanks go to TNA for permission to photograph and share these images.
More about the first residents at Hoar Oak Cottage – Charles and Elizabeth (nee Passmore) Vellacott – can be found in The Women of Hoar Oak Cottage An Untold Story. To obtain a copy go to Books4Sale or email: info@hoaroakcottage.org
In time Charles and Elizabeth moved on and the cottage was used to house several shepherd families over many decades, most were agricultural employees of the Vellacott family. Their stories can be read elsewhere in this section of the website headed The People.
In the 1850s another Vellacott family were resident in Hoar Oak Cottage – John and his wife Agnes (nee Crocombe). Records show the couple already had several children when they went to live at Hoar Oak where four more children were born: Joseph b1854, Maria b1856 and twins George and Richard b1859 .
John Vellacott had, for some years, been the schoolmaster at Brendon School but family memories tell us that John ran a small school at another Vellacott cottage, Folly, with the aim of providing some education for the many children living out on the remote part of the moor above Barbrook.
The 1861 census puts John and Agnes as still living at Hoar Oak Cottage but two years later Agnes died. More about her story can also be found in the ‘Agnes Crocombe’ chapter of The Women of Hoar Oak Cottage – An Untold Story.
In June 1866, the Vellacotts decided to sell Hoar Oak and the land around it. Their ‘award’ or ‘allotment’ of the land linked to the sale of the Royal Forest of Exmoor required that the land stayed in Vellacott hands for three generations. This having been achieved, they put the land and cottage up for sale as part of what was advertised as Lot 4 – The Reversion in Fee of a Moiety of the Furze Hill and Hoar Oak Estates containing together 454 acres of ‘arable, meadow and psture land.’ The purchaser is believed to be a Mr Jeune who then let the Hoar Oak land and cottage to Mr Taylor.
The Vellacott Archive
The Friends of Hoar Oak Cottage are indebted to several Vellacott descendants, some still local in Devon and others further afield – particularly Australia. They are listed below, with a summary of the information, photographs, family trees etc that they have donated/made available. As a consequence, The Friends Archive holds many items about the Vellacott family and their history to do with Hoar Oak Cottage. This will, slowly, be uploaded to the Vellacott Archive in the Collections Pages.
In the meantime, please contact info@hoaroakcottage.org if you wish to access that information.
More details about the Vellacotts can also be found in the publication ‘The Women of Hoar Oak Cottage. An Untold History. ‘ and details on how to obtain a copy can be found on this link www.hoaroakcottage.org/books4sale/
Jim and Mabel Vellacott. Late of Bampton, North Devon, Jim and Mabel were keen amateur historians and geneaologists researching the Vellacott family. As retired farmers they knew all about sheep but also had collated a rich resource of Vellacott history and we were lucky to film Jim ‘remembering’ some of that history in his own special way. To view videos free and online go to: https://hoaroakcottage.org/collection-frontpage/video-collection-2/
Please contact us on info@hoaroakcottage.org for access to any of the other information which will, slowly be coming online.
Robert and Elaine Vellacott from Tasmania, Australia descendants of Josiah Vellacott – youngest son of Charles and Elizabeth Vellacott – who emigrated to Australia. Rob and Elaine have provided a rich amount of material, family trees, photos etc. to do with the North Devon Vellacotts as well as the Australian Vellacotts. Please contact us on info@hoaroakcottage.org for access.
Terry Hicks. Australia. Also descended from Josiah Vellacott. Researched and written an extensive history of Josiah in Australia. For a copy please contact us on info@hoaroakcottage.org.
David Wilde from Lynton for sharing information, family trees, military rolls of honour including the original script of a moving First World War hymn written by Rcharles E Vellacott. If you would like a copy please contact us on info@hoaroakcottage.org.
Jinette Vellacott from South Wales for sharing a fascinating history of the Vellacott family in North Devon written by her mother-in-law Lorraine Vellacott. If you would like a copy please contact us on info@hoaroakcottage.org.
More to come.