The area where Lustleigh now stands has been inhabited since before records began as shown by the remains of stone hut circles, which can still be seen in the 'Cleave' (meaning 'Cliff' or 'Cleft', which is the defining geological feature of the valley) and the presence of an ancient burial monument "Datuidoc's Stone" which dates from before 600 AD.
In the 899 will of King Alfred the Great, a copy of which is in the British Library, Lustleigh (then known as Suðeswyrðe) was left to his youngest son Aethelweard.
Whilst the name Lustleigh (or any variation) is not found in the Domesday Book, it is believed that the village was recorded under the name of Sutreworde,[2] Anglo-Saxon for 'south of the wood'.[3]
At that time, the Lord of the Manor was Ansgar, who controlled 12 farms of around 1,200 acres (4.9 km²) plus a large area of forest. Unusually for the Domesday Book, beekeeping was mentioned as a key activity of the parish. At the time of the Domesday Survey, there were around 155 people living in the village.
The manor of Lustleigh was bought by Sir John Wadham Justice of the Common Pleas in 1403 and stayed in the Wadham family for eight generations, when it formed part of the estate of Nicholas Wadham (1531-1609), co-founder of Wadham College, Oxford.[4] It continued as an estate manor until the beginning of the 19th century when it was broken up and sold off.
Over time, the village expanded from its original boundaries (signified by the Bishop's stone at Caseley as the entrance, and the Wrey brook in the valley), to encompass the area beyond the Wrey brook (known as Wreyland) which was previously a separate village – although its residents attended Lustleigh's parish church – and out to Brookfield (in 1957).