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Little is known of ancient Dawlish, and almost all that is known has been recorded by Mr. J. B. Davidson in his paper read at Dawlish in July 1881 and recorded in the 'Transactions of the Devonshire Association' for that year. The first mention of Dawlish is in the Charter of 1044, when Edward the Confessor granted to his chaplain Leofric seven manses at Dawlish. The boundaries are given and correspond almost exactly with the present parishes of Dawlish and East Teignmouth combined, but with a few exceptions.
In 1069 William I made a grant of land to the church of St. Peter at Exeter and this grant included 'Holcombe'. This grant differs from the first grant inasmuch as it was not a personal grant to Leofric, but to him as a Bishop, for the benefit of his church at Exeter. The land at Dawlish is mentioned as well as Holcombe and Southwood, which latter is here spoken of as a separate manor.
In 1086 came the Domesday Survey, and Dawlish remained annexed to the See of Exeter. It remained in their hands until the end of the 18th century when the estate was sold to various purchasers.
The subsequent history of Dawlish is little known until towards the end of Elizabeth's reign. In or about 1640 the Manor of Dawlish was first let on lease by the Dean and Chapter in order to raise funds for Charles I, the justification for this action being that having been endowed by the Kings of England from time immemorial, the least they could do for him was to supply him with the means of thwarting the designs of his enemies. That this is correct is borne out by the Dawlish Parish Accounts, in which no mention is made of a personal Lord of the Manor before 1650, but in 1665 Sir Peter Balle is mentioned as Lord of the Manor and holder of the great tithes.
Among holders of the Manor since 1665 are the Balle family and their relatives the A'Courts and Vernons. At the sale it was held by (John) Inglett Portescue and after that by Richard Bales.
The real owners of the Manor being non-resident, it follows that no Manor House was needed or provided, as was the case with personal Manor holdings. The Barton House seems to have fulfilled the duty of a Manor House until the time of Richard Bales who lived at Eastdon.
We know very little of the topography of ancient Dawlish, but it seems as if there must have been a rather populous settlement here. The rural parts of the parish must have been more thickly populated than at present.
This part of Dawlish is no doubt of very ancient origin, but we know little of it until the end of the 16th century. There is evidence to show that the old town was of larger extent than the part now known as 'Old Town'. Until the latter half of the 18th century the old town was probably much as it had been for centuries. Between the old town and the beach there were only a few scattered cottages, and the ground now occupied by modern Dawlish was then almost all fields. The alterations in the old town date from the last quarter of the 18th century when the large residential houses now in the old town began to be built. The first of these was Bridge House, which appears to have been built about 1795 and first occupied by John Davy Poulks; its site and grounds appear to have been originally occupied by small cottages.
Brook House was built a few years later and was at first unnamed, but known as Mr. Keen's house, and later as New Bridge House. There were also cottages and tenements on this site. There were formerly more houses in Weech Lane (than were visible in the 1950s; recent development from the 1960s is on areas which had become progressively depopulated from the 18th century onwards).