Combe Martin 4.9

Combe Martin is a village, civil parish and former manor on the North Devon coast about 4mi east of Ilfracombe. It is a small seaside resort with a sheltered cove on the north-west edge of the Exmoor National Park. Due to the narrowness of the valley, the village consists principally of one single long street which runs 2mi between the valley head and the sea. An electoral ward with the village name exists. The ward population at the 2011 census was 3,941.HistoryEvidence of Iron Age occupation includes the nearby Newberry Castle fort. The toponym "Combe" is derived from Old English cumb meaning "wooded valley". It derives ultimately from the same Brythonic source as the Welsh cwm, also of the same meaning. The name was recorded as Comer in 1128. The 'Martin' suffix on the place name is from the name of the FitzMartin family, feudal barons of Barnstaple, from which large barony the manor of Combe was held. The FitzMartins held the barony following the marriage of Nicholas FitzMartin (d.1260) to Maud de Tracy, heiress of the barony of Barnstaple, until the death of his grandson William II FitzMartin in 1326 who left his two sisters co-heiresses.