Ash, Braunton

Ash in the parish of Braunton in North Devon is a historic estate listed in the Domesday Book. The present mansion, known as Ash Barton is a Grade II* listed building.

In AD 973 Edgar the Peaceful repossessed Braunton for the Crown through an exchange with Glastonbury Abbey, thus retrieving a strategically important estate at the head of a major estuary. Susan Pearce conjectures that the King then placed a number of his thegns here providing each with a landholding which became the small estates which form an arc around Braunton to the north and east. These appear to have been members of three manors within the parish of Braunton, later known as Braunton Dean, Braunton Abbot and Braunton Gorges, of which latter manor Ash was part. Ash was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as ESSA, which states that immediately before the Norman Conquest of 1066 it was held by a certain Alward.

Ash was amongst many estates granted by William the Conqueror to William Cheever (Latinised to Capra, "she-goat", from French chèvre). It is listed in Domesday Book as the 14th of his 46 landholdings in Devon. His lands later formed the feudal barony of Bradninch. William Cheever's tenant at Ash was a certain Ralph.

Somewhat later Ash was apparently granted in-chief to Reginald, Earl of Cornwall.

From Reginald, Earl of Cornwall, as recorded in the Cartae Baronum of 1166, Ash was held as half a knight's fee by Erchenbold, son of Simon de Flandrensis (Latin for "from Flanders/The Fleming"). The Fleming family held several estates in Devon (including Alverdiscott and Croyde) and was seated at nearby Bratton (later "Bratton Fleming"), in Braunton hundred, of which Erchenbald I (of Flanders) was the Domesday Book tenant of Robert, Count of Mortain, whose lands later became the feudal barony of Launceston, later the Duchy of Cornwall. In 1219 two thirds of the estate, by then for reason unknown called Ash Rogus (but see Holcombe Rogus), was given away as a marriage portion, but was bought back in 1229 by Erchenbald the Fleming.

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