East Devon has some delightful villages to explore, right across the area.

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Offwell is a lovely village of a few hundred people, between Honiton and Axminster and sits at the top of a valley of woods and pasture.

The parish extends to 2,250 acres and sits within the East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and has around 400 people living in it.

According to Devon, by WG Hoskins, the village features a 15th century church which was ‘much restored by Edward Copleston (1776-1849), Bishop of Llandaff and Dean of St Paul’s, who was born at the rectory’.

It also says that Edward was a great builder.

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It says: “He built Offwell House (1828), the rectory (1845) and the tower on Honiton Hill (1843) from which there are magnificent views.”

The village also benefits from an active social life, with many events taking place at Offwell Village Hall and the site is also the home of Offwell Sports and Social Club, which is open on Wednesdays and Fridays for the four home skittle teams, Saturdays for football and quite often for other events.

Fundraising efforts are continuing to refurbish a children’s play area after the previous one had to be removed.

Offwell usually hosts a village fete in June and a bonfire and firework night on the last Friday in October, and also has a very active village school. The village has also received wider notoriety through successes in the Best Kept Village Awards, run by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), as well as other competitions and also hosted the national tug of war finals in 2017.

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Offwell has a lot to offer, so why not take a little time to have a look round the village.

To read more features from East Devon Resident, click here.

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