The Exmoor National Park boundary runs down
the main street in this attractive village which is well known for it's
inn. Nearby Combe Sydenham
Country Park offers many walks with occasional guided tours of part
of the Elizabethan manor house and garden. Sir Francis Drake's cannonball
is on display and is supposed to bring good luck to those who touch it.
Nestling in the Brendon Hills on the boundary of Exmoor
National Park. Silver from Latin ‘silva’ meaning woodland i.e. Monks’ Wood. Church is 15th century and built of red sandstone.
Monksilver is an attractive village (pop 103) which straddles the National Park boundary. Nearby is Combe Sydenham
Country Park, with a sixteenth-century house which was home of Elizabeth Sydenham, second wife of Sir Francis Drake. There are pleasant walks over rolling farmland to Nettlecombe Park and superb views from Bird's Hill.
OS Grid Reference: ST0737
The name Monksilver is generally considered to mean 'Monkswood* [silva =Latin for 'an area of woodland'] but other derivations are possible. The earliest written account to mention the manor is the Exeter Domesday Book, commonly called the 'Gheld Inquest' of 1084. It is also mentioned in the Domesday Book itself (1086), and is there called Selvret and Selui.
According to the Domesday Book, the manor of Selver was held by Alured d'Epaignes (the Spaniard) whose daughter, Isabella, married Robert de Chandos (d. 1120), the Norman who is said to have added the territory around Caerleon, in Monmouthshire, to Norman England.
Perhaps as an act of penitence, Robert and Isabella founded a Priory at Goldcliff (modern spelling) on the Gwent Levels in 1113, and endowed it with great possessions of lands, churches, tithes, etc, situated or derived from various parts of Somerset and Devon. Included in this were the church and land of the parish of Monksilver.
About half a mile away Combe Sydenham manor may be found.
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