Tavistock
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  Map sources for Tavistock at grid reference SX4874
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- This article is about the town in Devon. For the square in London, see Tavistock Square.
Tavistock is the largest settlement in west Devon, England. It is a market town on the River Tavy, from which its name derives, and has a population of over 11,000. It traces its history back at least to AD 961, when Tavistock Abbey, whose ruins lie in the centre of the town, was founded. Its most famous son is the sailor, privateer and circumnavigator Sir Francis Drake.
There are other places called Tavistock in New Jersey, U.S.A. and Ontario, Canada.
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[edit] Tavistock Today
[edit] Location and Layout
Tavistock lies on the edge of Dartmoor, around 15 miles north of Plymouth on the A386, with a population of 11,227 [2001 census, revised 2002]. The town is centred on the paved amenity of Bedford Square, around which are found St. Eustachius' Church and the Abbey ruins, to the west, the Grade 2-listed Town Hall, the disused former Guildhall/magistrates' court buildings, and Pannier Market buildings behind the Town Hall. Abbey Bridge crosses the River Tavy to the south, while West Street and Duke Street, on either side of the north end of the square, form the main shopping areas, with the indoor [Pannier] market running behind Duke Street.
Plymouth Road, the A386 heading west from the centre of the square, is home to much of the town's tourist trade, with many hotels and bed and breakfast establishments, as well as the town's bus station. Between Plymouth Road and the Tavy is the park, known locally as the Meadows, along with car parks, the Wharf theatre, cinema and culture centre, and a public recreation pool. West of the Meadows are found the substantial playing fields and buildings of Tavistock College, reached by an underpass below the A386. Further south along the Plymouth Road/A386 lie industrial estates, supermarkets and other large retail outlets. To the north and east of town, lies Whitchurch Down, where Dartmoor begins immediately.
[edit] Life and events
The town is a market town providing shopping and some entertainment for its many outlying villages and the local farming community, as well as forming a centre for the West Devon and Dartmoor tourist trade. It is a fast growing commuter base for many working in Plymouth[citation needed]. It is home to Tavistock College, a state-funded specialist Language College with over 1,850 pupils, drawn from a catchment area of about 12 miles radius. Its flagship Japanese language programme is recognised throughout the UK and Japan. There is also a small private school, Kelly College, of about 350 pupils, situated just outside town to the east.
There is a sizeable and rapidly growing retired community, perhaps drawn by the rural tranquility and scenery, giving Tavistock one of the highest average ages in Devon.
The Market continues to operate from the large covered market building, the Pannier Market; the main market is on Fridays, with other days playing host to various more specialised events, such as craft fairs, farmers' markets, antiques etc. A Farmers' Market takes place on the Square fortnightly.
The biggest event in the town's calendar is the annual Goose (or "Goosey") Fair, which has existed since 1116. Originally scheduled to take place on the feast-day of St. Rumon, it now occurs on the second Wednesday of October, and takes over much of the town for several days either side, drawing crowds which far outnumber the resident population. Traditionally, the Fair was an opportunity for locals to purchase their Christmas goose, allowing plenty of time to fatten the bird before Christmas came; nowadays, along with a multitude of street vendors selling a vast range of wares, there are all the rides and games associated with funfairs; geese can still be purchased at the concurrent animal market.
The town maintains twinning links with Pontivy in France (Brittany) since 1958 and with Celle in Germany.
In 2005 Tavistock was voted 'Best Market Town' in England and in 2006 'Best Food Town', largely on the strength of the large number of independent food shops and suppliers to be found in the town and hinterland. Of particular note are Creber's delicatessen and the Cheese Shop to be found behind the Pannier market. There is an annual 2-day Food Festival in July, plus a Carnival, with a 2-day Balloon Fiesta each August. The town is also Devon's second Fairtrade Town (in 2006).
[edit] Culture
Tavistock was the birthplace of the poet William Browne.
The town is mentioned in some of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes adventures, including The Hound of the Baskervilles and Silver Blaze. It is also receives a mention in R. D. Blackmore's classic Lorna Doone and Neal Stephenson's novel, The System Of The World.
Tavistock is tied from late medieval times with the Russells, the family name of the Earls of Bedford and since 1694, the Dukes of Bedford. This is clearly seen from the history of the town. The second title of the Duke of Bedford is the Marquess of Tavistock, taken as the courtesy title of the eldest son and heir to the dukedom, and illustrates the importance of this Devon town, its hinterland and the minerals beneath it to the family's fortunes. It is believed that the Russell family retain considerable interests in the locality. Most recently, Robin, the short-lived 16th Duke, as Marquess of Tavistock, was a frequent visitor to the town along with his wife, Henrietta.
It is this Russell family connection through the Bedford Estates which gives the name by ownership to Russell and Tavistock Squares in London, famously home to the Tavistock Clinic, and infamously the bus-bombing of 7th July 2005, which took the Tavistock connection around the world.
Current British folk-pop sensation, Seth Lakeman is from Tavistock.
[edit] History
[edit] Early days
The area around Tavistock (formerly Tavistoke), where the River Tavy runs wide and shallow allowing it to be easily crossed, and near the secure high ground of Dartmoor, was inhabited long before the historical record. The surrounding area is littered with archaeological remains from the Bronze and Iron ages and it is believed a hamlet existed on the site of the present town long before the town's official history began, with the founding of the Abbey.
The abbey of Saint Mary and Saint Rumon was founded in 961 by Orgar, Earl of Devon. After destruction by Danish raiders in 997 it was restored, and among its famous abbots was Aldred, who crowned Harold II and William I, and died Archbishop of York. There is evidence to suggest that local speciality cream tea was first served here, to workers during the restoration. The abbey church was rebuilt in 1285 and the greater part of the abbey in 1457-58.
[edit] Market town
In 1105 a Royal Charter was granted by Henry I to the monks of Tavistock to run a weekly "Pannier Market" (so called after the baskets used to carry goods) on a Friday, which still takes place today. In 1116 a three-day fair was also granted to mark the feast of Saint Rumon, another tradition that is still maintained in the shape of the annual "Goosey" fair. In 1552 two fairs on April 23 and November 28 were granted by Edward VI to the Earl of Bedford, then lord of the manor.
In the 17th century great quantities of cloth were sold at the Friday market and four fairs were held at the feasts of Saint Michael, Epiphany, Saint Mark, and the Decollation of John the Baptist. The charter of Charles II instituted a Tuesday market, fairs on the Thursday after Whitsunday and at the feast of Saint Swithin. In 1822 the old fairs were abolished in favour of six fairs on the second Wednesdays in May, July, September, October, November and December.
By 1185 Tavistock had achieved borough status and in 1295 became a parliamentary borough, sending two members to parliament. It was deprived of one member in 1867 and finally disenfranchised in 1885. In 1305, with the growing importance of the area as one of Europe's richest sources of tin, Tavistock was one of the four stannary towns appointed by charter of Edward I, where tin was stamped and weighed and monthly courts were held for the regulation of mining affairs.
The church of Saint Eustachius dates from 1318 and was dedicated by Bishop Stapledon. It was further rebuilt and enlarged into its current form between 1425 and 1450, at which time the Clothworkers' Aisle was included, an indication of the growing importance of the textile industry to the local economy - the trade was protected by a 1467 statute. It possesses a lofty tower supported on four open arches, one of which was reputedly added to accommodate the 19th Century "tinners" or tin miners. Within are monuments to the Glanville and Bourchier families, besides some stained glass, one window being the work of William Morris. It also possess a roof boss featuring one of the so-called 'Tinner's Hares' (see Three Hares)- a trio of rabbits/hares joined at and sharing three ears between them.
The town continued to prosper under the charge of the abbots, acquiring one of England's first printing presses in 1525. Tavistock remained an important centre of both trade and religion until the Dissolution of the Monasteries - the abbey was demolished in 1539, leaving the ruins still to be seen around the centre of the town. From this time on, the dominant force in the town became the Russell family, Earls and later Dukes of Bedford, who took over much of the land following the Dissolution.
[edit] Francis Drake
Around 1540 (some sources state 1542 as the exact year), Sir Francis Drake was born at Crowndale Farm, just to the west of what is now Tavistock College; a Blue Plaque marks the house in which he is believed to have been born. He became a prominent figure of his age, a champion of Queen Elizabeth, the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world and winner of a famously decisive victory against the Spanish Armada in 1588.
The famous statue of Drake on Plymouth Hoe is a copy of that on a roundabout on the A386 at the western end of the town, with panels not replicated on the Hoe copy. Drake later made his home at Buckland Abbey, about 8 miles away towards Plymouth, jointly owned/run by Plymouth City Council and the National Trust, and now a museum to Drake.
[edit] Industry
Mines of copper, manganese, lead, silver and tin were previously in the neighborhood and the town possessed a considerable trade in cattle and corn, and industries in brewing and iron-founding.
By the 17th century, tin was on the wane, and the town relied more heavily on the cloth trade. Under the stewardship of the Russells the town remained prosperous, surviving the Black Death in 1625 (though 52 townspeople died). In the English Civil War starting 1642, the town was at first held by the Parliamentarians (Francis Russell, the 4th Earl of Bedford was a leading figure in the parliamentarian movement), before later hosting King Charles I and his Royalist troops in 1643 after the defeat of the Parliamentary forces at Bradock Down.
The woollen industry decayed at Tavistock and was attributed by the inhabitants in 1641 to the dread of the Turks at sea and of Popish Plots at home.
In 1694, William Russell, 5th Earl of Bedford became the first Duke of Bedford.
By 1800, cloth was heading the same way as tin had done a century earlier, but copper was starting to be seriously mined in the area, to such an extent that by 1817 a canal had been dug (most of the labour being done by French prisoners of war from the Napoleonic Wars), to carry copper to Morwellham Quay on the River Tamar, where it could be loaded into ships weighing up to 200 tonnes.
In the mid-nineteenth century, with nearby Devon Great Consols mine at Blanchdown one of the biggest copper mining operations in the world, Tavistock was booming again, reputedly earning the 7th Duke of Bedford alone over £2,000,000. A statue in copper of the 7th Duke stands in Guildhall Square. The Duke built a 50,000 imperial gallon (230 m³) reservoir to supply the town in 1845, as well as a hundred miners' houses at the southern end of town, between 1845 and 1855. There is a strong, recognisable vernacular "Bedford style" of design, exemplified most strikingly in Tavistock's Town Hall and "Bedford Cottages" ubiquitous across Tavistock and much of the local area to the north and west, where the Bedfords had their estate and summer "cottage" at Endsleigh House and Gardens (since 2005, Olga Paolozzi's Hotel Endsleigh).
The railway came to the town in 1859, with the town being connected to the Great Western Railway and the London and South Western Railway. At around this time the centre of town was substantially and ruthlessly remodelled by the 7th Duke of Bedford, including the construction of the current Town Hall and Pannier Market buildings, and the widening of the Abbey Bridge, first built in 1764, and a new Drake Road ramped up northwards from Bedford Square to the LSWR station. The population had peaked at around 9,000. By 1901 the population had halved, recorded as 4,728.
Kelly College, to the north-east of the town, was founded by Admiral Benedictus Marwood Kelly, and opened in 1877 for the education of his descendants and the orphan sons of naval officers, and is a pastiche of the Bedford and High Victorian styles of building.
[edit] The 20th and 21st Centuries
In 1911, the Bedford influence on the town came to an end after over 450 years, when the family sold most of their holdings in the area to meet death duties. The Bedford name can still be seen in many place names around the town. The Bedford family retain links with the town, mainly through Kelly College.
The Town Council is the owner of much former Bedford property from around this time, making it one of the richest parish councils in England{fact}.
West Devon Borough Council is based in Tavistock, about 500 metres north of Bedford Square at Kilworthy Park.
In 1933 the long-disused canal was put to use providing hydroelectric power for the area.
A war memorial in Bedford Square commemorates and lists many, but not all, the townsfolk killed in the First and Second World Wars. Many families across Britain exercised their right not to have their family members named on these public memorials. As of 2006, this memorial is in process of being moved, to a site in the graveyard of the Parish Church.
The rail connection to the town was closed and mostly dismantled, between 1962 and 1965. There is hope that the rail-link to Plymouth will be reopened within 5 years, linking into the Gunnislake-Plymouth line at Calstock. Engineering assessment shows the rail-bed, bridges and tunnels to be in sound condition. A light transit link to Plymouth is estimated at around £30 million, and has already encouraged speculation about restoring the Tavistock-Okehampton rail link, which could provide an alternative rail link for the South West to the rest of UK to the Devon coastal mainline. However, discussion and speculation regarding the restoration of a rail link has been on-going for many years.
In 1986, the town's two newspapers, the Tavistock Gazette (founded in 1857) and the Tavistock Times (established in 1920) merged to form the current weekly publication, the Tavistock Times Gazette, with a circulation of around 8,000, with readership estimated at 3 times that{fact}. The newspaper is owned by Sir Ray Tindle, knighted by Margaret Thatcher, and edited by Colin Brent.
In July 2006 Tavistock was named the eastern Gateway to the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site, which runs westward through the Tamar Valley and Great Consols Mine, down the spine of Cornwall to Lands End. [1] This £75 million project is likely to bring more tourists to Tavistock. A £1.1million World Heritage Site Interpretation Centre is planned for 2007, to be built in the area of the Guildhall, and overlooking the River Tavy.
The Guildhall Square itself remains an area of dereliction : no coherent plan has come forward in recent years from the Town Council, West Devon Borough or local business. At one point a national pub chain was known to be interested in developing the site, but this was rebuffed by the townspeople. A local police museum has been mooted, though how this can justify an £1 million investment to purchase, set up and attract the necessary minimum paying 50,000 visitors a year, is yet to be set out in detail: the relevance to the World Heritage Site is yet to be explained, for example.
A small group of local businessmen, collectively known as "Tavistock Forward", but unincorporated, without charitable status or with any substantial funding in place, have been revealed as negotiating to take over the Guildhall complex with Police force and English Heritage endorsement, with lease-back of the existing Police station to Devon & Cornwall Police, while developing the Guildhall itself for a purpose yet to be disclosed. There have been local concerns about an un-elected group like TF managing the town's policing without the declared support of either the Town Council or West Devon Borough Council.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
[edit] External links
- Local government
- Tavistock-Information Web-Site
- Tavistock information from Devon County Council
- The Tavistock Times Gazette
- The History of Tavistock
- Tavistock College Homepage
- History of Tavistock in Stitch
- History of the canal
- History of the railway
- A small gallery of photographs of Tavistock
