History
In the Domesday Book Abbotskerswell was called Carsuella and was held by the abbot of Horton, Dorset. The name kerswell means cress spring. In 1086 it had a population of less than one hundred. By 1901 the population had risen to 451 and to 1,515 by 2001.
The village church, dedicated to St. Mary, was affected by the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII. Old treasures, particularly a large badly damaged medieval statue assumed to be of the Virgin and Child, have been found within the church, and work has been undertaken to restore them.
Abbotskerswell developed around the growing of apples for cider making. Henley's Devonshire Cider was made by a company based in nearby Newton Abbot from apples grown in the extensive orchards around the village, and their presses were here too.
In 1850, according to White's Devonshire Directory:
"ABBOTSKERSWELL, or Abbot's Carswell, is a pleasant village, two miles S. of Newton Abbot, and has in its parish 433 souls and 1600 acres of land, including several scattered houses and the hamlet of Aller, where there is a paper mill, on a rivulet 1 ½ mile from the church. The soil is all freehold, and belongs to Sir W.P. Carew, Bart., the Hon. Mrs. Hare, W. Hole, Esq., Wm. and John Creed, and a few smaller owners. The Church (St. Mary,) is an ancient fabric in the perpendicular style, with a tower and three bells. It is about to be thoroughly repaired and beautified. The old pews are to give way to open benches, and the finely carved oak screen is to be restored and opened. . . . A cottage has been converted into a Baptist Chapel; and in the parish is a Quaker's Burial Ground, which was reserved for that purpose by a Mr. Tucket, when he sold Court Barton estate. Here is a small National School."
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