Merton, Devon Homepage

Merton probably derives its name from the old English word for a sheet of standing water, a lake or pond was ‘mere’ , the town near the mere. Merton has been recorded with a variety of names: Merton or Mertona in the 1086 doomsday book, then Mereton ,Marton , Martyn and Merton – although for a time also commonly called Martin which may just be the local Devon deviation of the spoken name. The Church now All Saints was in fact St Martins before the major Victorian restoration.

The river which bounds much of the parish to the East is the of course the River Mere. Settlement in the area goes back to the mists of dawn itself. Knapped flints having been found at different locations within the parish. Merton was listed in the Doomsday book or 1086 (the Norman inventory of all the lands and estates in their ownership) after their conquest. Norman the Conqueror gave Merton to one of his knights, later from King Henry the 2nds time knights living here probably took their name from the settlement, a Philip de Merton held it in 1166, the last ‘Merton to hold the village was a Richard de Merton who died in 1370 without male heirs and it came to his widow Matilda who remarried Sir John FitzWarin thus ended the direct Merton family connection.
According to the famous historian Prof W G Hoskins, Walter de Merton, founder of Merton College at Oxford, was born here. Although contact with Merton College at Oxford do not agree, there is growing belief that this may well be true and Hoskins would have had some reason to have believed so.
To day Merton as always is primarily an agricultural area, the woods and nearby clay industry has meant some considerable employment over recent centuries, now much diminished although the clay now mined in open cast method is shipped from Bideford to various parts of the world in large bulk ships. Indeed when in Bideford you may often see one of the Russia ships moored up and loading clay when the tides are right