Halwell and Moreleigh

Halwell and Moreleigh is a civil parish in Devon, England. It comprises the villages of Halwell and Morleigh.

The civil parish was formed in 1988 by the amalgamation of the former separate civil parishes of Halwell and Moreleigh.

During the Saxon era Halwell was one of the four burhs, or fortified settlements, established in Devon by King Alfred the Great (d.899), King of Wessex from 871 to 899, to defend against invasion by Vikings. At that time the other three were Exeter, Pilton (near Barnstaple) and Lydford. Halwell had its own mint and issued its own coinage. According to the Burghal Hidage (an early 10th Century document describing all burhs then functioning), Halwell's town wall was 1,237 feet long and the garrison consisted of 300 men who could be drawn from the surrounding district in the event of an invasion. However by the close of the 11th century its status as a burh had been transferred to Totnes, 5 miles to the north and situated on the River Dart, probably because it was better placed for trade at a time when the Viking threat had diminished, after which the significance of Halwell greatly decreased. The Iron Age fort of Halwell Camp lies to the south of the village of Halwell.

The manor of Moreleigh is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Morlei, the 16th of the 22 Devonshire holdings of Alfred the Breton, one of the Devon Domesday Book tenants-in-chief of King William the Conqueror. In the 13th century the courthouse of Stanborough Hundred was situated above the New Inn. The Church of All Saints in Moreleigh had been built by 1239.

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