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WEST HILL WOODLAND VILLAGE


Brief History of the Village

In earlier times, West Hill was heath and scrub land and part of the Budleigh Pebble Ridge.  An Ancient ridgeway ran across the top of the hill (now the B3180) joining the Hembury Fort and Woodbury Castle - both Iron Age Forts.


At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, West Hill was a small settlement of a few large Victorian houses, cottages and small farms.  There was a church, school, post office and a smithy.  Things stayed much the same until into the 1960’s the then Ottery St Mary Urban District Council decided that West Hill should be a dormitory settlement for Exeter.


Potters Country Market (now Morrisons) opened in 1971, heralding the anticipated population explosion and building continued, as it still does.  In the mid 1980’s a new Village Hall was built, closely followed by a new Primary School in the early 1990’s.  The mains gas also came at around this time.


Thus our woodland village became as we see it today.


This website was founded in 2013 under the aegis of the West Hill Residents’ Association (WHRA) to allow rapid dissemination of information about the village, its environs, clubs and societies, school and village amenities.  It also included information on the local government activities and planning etc.


West Hill attained Parish status in 2017, formerly being a ward of Ottery St. Mary.  In keeping with its new status, West Hill Parish Council will be developing a Parish Council web site which will support the local government activities.

West Hill Woodland Village