Fremington is a large village, civil parish and former manor in North Devon, England, the historic centre of which is situated three miles (5 km) west of Barnstaple. The village lies between the south bank of the tidal estuary of the River Taw and a small inlet of that river known as Fremington Pill. The parish is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishes of Heanton Punchardon, Ashford, West Pilton, Barnstaple, Tawstock, Horwood, Lovacott and Newton Tracey, and Instow. Fremington Quay was formerly a port on the River Taw, half a mile north of the village centre. Fremington was formerly a borough which sent members to Parliament in the reign of King Edward III (1327–77). The parish includes the neighbouring former hamlets (greatly expanded in the 20th century) of Bickington to the east and Yelland to the west. Fremington, Bickington and Yelland, all on the B3223 main road from Barnstaple to Instow have, according to Hoskins (1959), been spoilt by almost uninterrupted ribbon-building to provide housing for commuters to Barnstaple, but some old houses survive near the parish church. History Fremington hundred was one of the 32 historic hundreds of Devon. Owing to its quay and right to hold certain fairs or markets, it was briefly a borough that sent members to Parliament in the reign of Edward III. The manor of Fremington was held by the Acland family of Barnstaple, a junior branch of the Acland Baronets of Killerton in Devon and Holnicote in Somerset, which originated in the 12th century at the estate of Acland, Landkey in North Devon, and which by the 19th century was one of the largest landowners in the Southwest of England. It passed to Richard II who granted it to his half-brother John Holland, Earl of Huntingdon. Following Holland's execution in January 1400 for his rebellion against Henry IV, who had usurped the throne from Richard, the keeping of the manor of Fremington was given in May 1400 to John Stourton (died 1438) of Preston Plucknett in Somerset, 7 times MP for Somerset, together with William Yerde, MP. Demography The population of Fremington, according to the census of 1801, was 875. This number increased gradually in the forty years to 1841, to 1,326 however the rate of increase slowed during the next 10 years and coinciding with the arrival of the railway fell from 1,351 in 1851 to 1,194 in 1901 and