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town (seaside resort) and civil parish in Devon, England
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Ilfracombe ( IL-frə-koom) is a seaside town and civil parish on the North Devon coast, England, with a small harbour surrounded by cliffs.
The parish stretches along the coast from the 'Coastguard Cottages' in Hele Bay toward the east and 4 miles (6 km) along the Torrs to Lee Bay toward the west. The resort is hilly and the highest point within the parish boundary is 'Hore Down Gate', 2 miles (3 km) inland and 860 feet (270 m) above sea level.
The landmark of Hillsborough Hill dominates the harbour and is the site of an Iron Age fortified settlement. In the built environment, the architectural-award-winning Landmark Theatre has a distinctive double-conical design. The 13th-century parish church, Holy Trinity, and the St Nicholas's Chapel (a lighthouse) on Lantern Hill, have been joined by Damien Hirst's statue of Verity as points of interest.
Ilfracombe has been settled since the Iron Age, when the Dumnonii (the Roman name for the inhabitants of the South-West) established a hill fort on the dominant hill, Hillsborough (formerly Hele's Barrow). The origin of the town's name has two possible sources. The first is that it is a derivative of the Anglo-Saxon Alfreinscoma - by which name it was noted in the Liber Exoniensis of 1086. The translation of this name (from Walter William Skeat of the department of Anglo Saxon at Cambridge University) means the "Valley of the sons of Alfred". The second origin is that the name Ilfracombe was derived from Norse illf (bad), Anglo-Saxon yfel (evil ford) and Anglo-Saxon cumb (valley) perhaps from a Celtic source (compare Welsh cwm), thus 'The valley with the bad ford'.
The manor house at Chambercombe in east Ilfracombe was recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as being built by a Norman knight Champernon (from Chambernon in France) who landed with William of Normandy. It is also said to be haunted.
Ilfracombe comprised two distinct communities; a farming community around the parish church called Holy Trinity, parts of which date from the 12th century, and a fishing community around the natural harbour formed between Capstone, Compass and Lantern Torrs. It is recorded that the lands by the church were part of the estate owned by Champernowne family, while those by the harbour belonged to the Bouchier family: Earls of Bath.
Because of the natural layout of the harbour, Ilfracombe became a significant safe port (registered port of refuge) on the Bristol Channel. It also had trade routes between Kinsale and Tenby, which made the port stronger. In 1208 it was listed as having provided King John with ships and men to invade Ireland; in 1247 it supplied a ship to the fleet that was sent to conquer the Western Isles of Scotland; 6 ships, with 79 men were sent to support the siege of Calais. Ilfracombe was the last disembarkation point for two large forces sent to subdue the Irish. The building which sits on Lantern Hill by the harbour, known as St Nicholas's Chapel (built 1361) is reputed to be the oldest working lighthouse in the UK; a light/beacon has been there for over 650 years.
The town was also home to the Bowen family. James Bowen was sailing master of HMS Queen Charlotte, the flagship of Richard, Earl Howe at the 1794 "Glorious First of June" battle. James Bowen was commissioned by Howe for his leadership in the battle. He rose through the levels - commander of HMS Argo, Dreadnought, and in Georgian England titled "defender of Madeira", led the fleet which rescued the British Army at Corunna in the Peninsular War. For his skill in saving the Peninsula army from Napoleon's forces, he was presented to a joint meeting of the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament to receive the rare honour of record of "grateful thanks of the nation". He retired as a Rear Admiral and Commissioner of the Royal Navy. Captain Richard Bowen (1761–97) James Bowen's younger brother, a commander on HMS Terpsichore, served under Lord Nelson and was killed at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1797). John Bowen (1780–1827), son of Admiral James Bowen, was a naval officer and colonial administrator. He founded the first settlement of Tasmania at Risdon Cove in 1803 - the settlement that later became known as Hobart. Captain John Bowen married Queen Charlotte's niece.
Lieutenant A E Down was initially posted to Ilfracombe to lead a protection ship for HM Customs and Excise. He married a local girl and rose through the officers' ranks to retire as vice admiral. His son joined the navy aged 14 (his first navy kit is on display at National Maritime Museum, Greenwich). In 1802 James Meek married Down's daughter and settled in the town; James Meek was appointed the Comptroller of Victuals to the Royal Navy in 1832. He was knighted and died in Ilfracombe in 1852. (Gentlemen's Gazette)
There was a battlemented castle overlooking the harbour; of this nothing remains except contemporary records and the area designated Castle Hill off Portland Street/Montepellier Terrace.
The novelist Frances Burney stayed in Ilfracombe in 1817. Her diary entries (2 July – 5 October) record early 19th-century life in Ilfracombe: a captured Spanish ship; two ships in distress in a storm; the visit of Thomas Bowdler; and her lucky escape after being cut off by the tide. A few years later in the 1820s, a set of four tunnels were hand-carved by Welsh miners to permit access to the beaches by horse-drawn carriage as well as on foot. Previously access was gained by climbing the cliffs, rounding the point by boat, swimming or at the lowest tides clambering around the rocks of the point. These tunnels led to a pair of tidal pools, which in accordance with Victorian morals, were used for segregated male and female bathing. Whereas women were constrained to a strict dress code covering up the whole body, men generally swam naked. The tunnels are still viewable and are signposted as the Tunnels Beaches.
The population in the 1841 census was 2,855 inhabitants.
In 1856, writer Mary Ann Evans (pen-name George Eliot) accompanied George Henry Lewes to Ilfracombe to gather materials for his work Seaside Studies published in 1858. Actor Peter Sellers lived in the town when his parents managed the Gaiety Theatre; he first stepped on the stage there and reputedly played the drums. Another actor, Terry Thomas visited the town frequently to stay with his sister, and in the same period, Joan Collins and Jackie Collins were schooled here and boarded in the town. In the last two decades, the town has been home to many artists including locally Damien Hirst, and George Shaw a runner up for the Turner Prize. There is an annual art festival when local artists open their homes for visitors to see their work and 7 to 10 permanent art galleries. The town's first lifeboat was bought in 1828 but a permanent service was not available until the Royal National Lifeboat Institution built a lifeboat station at the bottom of Lantern Hill near the pier in 1866. The present station at Broad Street dates from 1996.
In 1911, the Irish nationalist Anna Catherine Parnell (sister of Charles Stewart Parnell) drowned at Ilfracombe and is buried in the churchyard at Holy Trinity.
Alice Frances Louisa Phillips (b. 26 January 1891 at 85 High Street, Ilfracombe) and her father Escott Robert Phillips (b. 1869 Cardiff) held 2nd class ticket No. 2 on the Titanic, and set sail from Southampton on 10 April 1912 heading for New Brighton, Pennsylvania. Alice was rescued in boat 12, but her father was lost in the disaster.
The Great Fire of Ilfracombe started at 12:40 a.m. on the night of 28 July 1896 in the basement of William Cole's ironmongers and furniture shop on the corner of Portland Street and Fore Street. The local volunteer fire brigade had it under control by the following morning. The fire brigade's entire equipment was a manual Merryweather engine, a hose-reel cart and one telescopic ladder on wheels. In total thirty five houses and business premises and their contents were destroyed. Later that year the fire brigade crew were presented with medals and £2 each at a dinner in their honour at the Royal Clarence Hotel. The damage was estimated at the times at between £80,000 and £100,000. The same area of the town was evacuated on 12 December 1981 when a fire in Draper's paint store released fumes. A much larger fire started on the night of 2 September 1983 in the shopping arcade under the Candar Hotel, with one life was lost.
On 8 August 2006, a fire broke out at the derelict Montebello Hotel in Fore Street. Twenty fire engines were required to put out the blaze, including a number from Woolacombe, Barnstaple and Somerset. Specialist equipment was brought in from Exeter. The fire spread to three neighbouring properties and showered debris over a wide area. The six-storey hotel was completely gutted, and the building was eventually demolished when it was determined that the fire had left it structurally unsound.
There are three tiers of local government covering Ilfracombe, at parish (town), district and county level: Ilfracombe Town Council, North Devon Council (based in Barnstaple) and Devon County Council (based in Exeter). Ilfracombe Town Council is based at the Ilfracombe Centre at 44 High Street, which also serves as an area office for North Devon Council.
Ilfracombe was an ancient parish. It was also an ancient borough in the middle ages, but its borough status lapsed and it was subsequently run by its parish vestry, in the same way as most rural areas. Urban forms of local government were re-established in 1851 when a local board was created for the parish. The local board built a town hall at 20 High Street to serve as its headquarters, which was formally opened in 1863.
Local boards were reconstituted as urban district councils in 1894. Ilfracombe Urban District Council was based at the town hall until 1931, when it converted the west wing of the Ilfracombe Hotel on Wilder Road to become its offices and meeting place and sold the town hall. The urban district of Ilfracombe was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, with the area merging with neighbouring districts to become the new North Devon district. A successor parish was created covering the former urban district, with its council taking the name Ilfracombe Town Council. In 1997 the town council established a new headquarters at 44 High Street, which had been built in 1935 as the offices of the Ilfracombe Gas Company, naming it the Ilfracombe Centre.
The town lies within the Parliamentary constituency of North Devon. It had Liberal Democrat representation from 1992 to 2015 with MP Nick Harvey. and again since 2024 through Ian Roome.
From 2015 to 2024 it was a Conservative seat, first represented by Peter Heaton-Jones from 2015 to 2019, and after 2019 by Selaine Saxby.
The town is also twinned with Ifs in France.
Ilfracombe overlies slates formed from sedimentary rock that underwent geological stress (creating faults and folds), towards the end of the Carboniferous Period, around 300 million years ago. These are known as the Ilfracombe slates. Ilfracombe lies within the North Devon Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty which is renowned for its dramatic coastal cliffs and landscape. Hillsborough, lying close to the town centre is a local nature reserve, and around the town are many other havens for wildlife, notable including the Cairn. The coast itself is part of the North Devon Voluntary Marine Conservation area because of its diverse and rare species.
At the 2021 census, the parish of Ilfracombe had a population of 11,035 people in 5,044 households, a decrease from the recorded population of 11,509 at the 2011 Census. The Office for National Statistics also define a contiguous built-up area for Ilfracombe, excluding rural parts of the parish, which had a population of 9,200 in 2021.
Until the mid-19th century Ilfracombe's economy was based around maritime activities: importing lime and coal from Wales; fishing for herring; and international trade, including to West Africa and the West Indies.
The town gradually developed into a tourist resort served by ferries along the Bristol Channel. The opening of the railway accelerated this development. The population grew until the First World War, then stabilised at 9,200, now 11,000. The economy suffered throughout the 1960s as UK holiday patterns changed, and suffered further through the closure of the railway line in 1970.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Ilfracombe”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.