Woolfardisworthy is a village and civil parish in the Torridge district in the English county of Devon. The village is accessible via the A39 road, 2 miles (3 km) from the village.

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Woolfardisworthy Woolsery
All Hallows' Church
Woolfardisworthy Location within Devon
Population	1,123 [1]
Civil parish	Woolsery [2]
District	Torridge
Shire county	Devon
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Bideford
Postcode district	EX39
Police	Devon and Cornwall
Fire	Devon and Somerset
Ambulance	South Western
UK Parliament	Torridge and West Devon
List of places UK England Devon 50.96472°N 4.37694°W / 50.96472; -4.37694

Name

The name of the village is a local curiosity, as its pronunciation (and occasional spelling) differs from what one might expect. On local signs, the village is sometimes marked as Woolsery alongside the original name. This is due to the pronunciation of the village's name being /ˈwʊlzəri/. The name also provides evidence for the power of the written word in conserving place-names: the shortened pronunciation is known to have been in use since the 17th century.[3]

According to the Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names (Eilert Ekwall, 4th ed., 1960), the origin of the name is probably "Wulfheard's homestead". The element "worthy" is from Old English worþig, one of several words used by the Anglo-Saxons to denote a homestead, farmstead or small settlement.

Woolfardisworthy (the full name) - along with a few other places in Devon, is one of the longest place names in England with 16 letters.

All Hallows Church

In the parish church dedicated to All Hallows is the large monument with effigy to Richard Cole (d.1614) of Buckish within the parish, also of Slade in the parish of Cornworthy, Devon. It is a Grade 1 British Listed Building.[4]

Organisations

The Centre for Fortean Zoology is based here.

References

External links

• Media related to Woolfardisworthy at Wikimedia Commons