Efford

Efford is an historic manor formerly in the parish of Egg Buckland, Devon, England. Today it has been absorbed by large, mostly post-World War II, eastern suburb of the city of Plymouth. It stands on high ground above the Laira estuary of the River Plym and provides views over long distances: to the north across Dartmoor, to the east and south-east across the South Hams. It consists predominantly of local authority and housing association properties. Before this land was built upon it was known as 'The Wilds of Efford', and was largely unspoilt countryside and marsh land. That a deer park may have been attached to the manor is suggested by the survival of the street name "Deer Park Drive".EtymologyThe former manor is situated on land sloping down towards the River Plym and it was suggested by the Devon historian Tristram Risdon (d.1640) that its ancient name was Ebbing-Ford "of a passage through the River Plym by which it lieth". A ford existed here by which travellers could cross the river at ebb tide, hence "Ebb-Ford". Today much of the river has silted up and has been reclaimed and built-upon.HistoryBastardIt is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Elforde, the 6th of the 10 Devonshire holdings of Robert Bastard, one of the Devon Domesday Book tenants-in-chief of King William the Conqueror. It included a fishery, which paid tax of 12 pence. Robert held it in demesne, together with Hazard, Blachford, Stonehouse, Bickford and Meavy, all but one of which before the Norman Conquest of 1066 had been held by the Saxon Alwin. His lands later formed part of the feudal barony of Plympton.