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Stoke Fleming
The parish of Stoke Fleming with its thriving village is situated high on the cliffs above Dartmouth. It bordered on one side by the sea between Warren Point and Matthews point and stretching inland to Hemborough Post.
The first records of the parish of Stoke Fleming appear in the Domesday Book of 1086 under its old original name of Stoke or Stoc. At the time of the Norman conquest (1066) the manor was held by a Saxon chief called Ansger but later handed to Walter of Douai as a spoil of war. In 1192 the manor passed to Richard the Fleming, from whom this village gained its name.The village has a pub, the Green Dragon, its age but records show that from 1170 it was most likely that the pub was built as an inn to accommodate the stonemasons and other artisans building the church. The pub is famous for it`s smugglers passage which used to run down to the beach.
A National School was established in Stoke Fleming in 1850 to accommodate 110 pupils. A charge per child per week was made of one halfpenny for labourers`s children, one penny for tradesmen`s children and sixpence for the children of farmers.
The Church
The present church was thought to have begun about 700 years ago by the Carews of Haccombe, near Newton Abbot,however a major restoration took place in 1871.
The tower, 83 feet high dates from the late 13th century. It was long used as a landmark for shipping. It contains six bell, cast by Pennington Brothers of Stoke Climsland in Cornwall in 1977. The clock was built in 1878. The pulpit was carved in 1891 by miss Violet Pinwill aged 17. It was commisioned to contain as many animals as possible, it contains 60, the alter rails in 1911 were again the work of Violet. The font is Norman from about 1236, it is made of red sandstone with a lead lining. In the churchyard the tomb of George Parker Bidder, the mathematical genius and engineer.
 
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