A walk around historic Bovey Tracey (S Devon Branch)

A guided walk around the town led by Frances Billinge.

The walk will cover the history of Bovey Tracey from medieval times, its Market in 1219; Borough Charter in 1260; Royal Lords of the Manor including Lady Margaret Beaufort; the Civil War and Thomas Cromwell; the parish church of Sts Peter, Paul and Thomas Becket; the potteries as a source of its wealth; and the Hole family who developed the Parke estate.

We meet at Station Road Car Park (the main one at the bottom of the town) for a 1 pm. start. The walk will be uphill to the Parish Church (and back down), but we will take it slowly with many stops. Afterwards there will be an optional home-made afternoon tea in an idyllic location (those who have been with us before might be able to guess where!)

There is a strict limit of 20 people, so advance booking is required – contact the Organiser (details below).

Cost – for the walk: DA members £5, non-members £6; plus £8 for the optional afternoon tea. Payment in cash (only) on the day please.

Report on the event

On 18 September Dr Frances Billinge led us on a walk around the historic Borough of Bovey Tracey. We heard that Bovey Tracey had a market from 1219 and was a Borough from 1260. In medieval times the Lord of the Manor was the king until the lordship was sold in the early 1600s.

Our walk started by looking at the leats near The Dolphin which brought the water to the mill. The mill was sited where Dominos is now trading. Further on we came to a thatched house called Pludda meaning muddy pool. This was at the boundary of the historic Borough, and in the wall we saw one of the early stand pipes for water. Our walk then took us through Mill Marsh Park which had been part of the large estate of Parke owned by the Hole family. Bovey is very grateful that Major Hole in 1974 gave Parke to the National Trust. This means a considerable amount of countryside is available for all to enjoy.

Walking up Fore Street we saw the house and stables of John Divett, now the Co-op, flats and Make craft centre. Divett ran the local pottery in Victorian times and brought prosperity to the town. The wheel on the side of his stables was used to raise water for his horses, it was never a mill. We then stopped at the Cromwell Arms, and nearby Cromwell’s Arch in Abbey Road. These are all twentieth century names. In the centre of the town we saw the war memorial which is the sited on the original market place. Houses here still have some medieval features. Walking further up the hill we climbed very steep steps to experience one of the original burgage plots of the ancient Borough.

Proceeding up East Street we looked at the Manor House which until the early 1900s was called Pit Tenement. This is a fine Elizabethan house but it had no connection with the royal lords of the manor, it was renamed by Miss Tracey when she inherited it.

In the churchyard we concentrated on the memorials to three important local people. Rev Courteney who was the vicar in the second half of the nineteenth century. He had the money to build a new church on the Heathfield part of the parish, and he also built a mission house to help the poor. We peeped through the trees and caught sight of the imposing Devon House of Mercy which Courtenay had built to help ‘fallen’ women from all over the country. We then saw the somewhat humble grave of John Divett despite him being a millionaire. Nearby we saw the simple gravestone of Major Hole. Frances explained that although the church is named for Sts Peter, Paul and Thomas it was never actually dedicated to Thomas Becket, and that name was assumed in the 1700s because of the date of the annual fair. William de Tracy who had been Lord of the Manor of Bovey Tracey was not the William who was involved with Becket’s murder.

Our walk then took us back down Fore Street and we noted Front House the alleged site of cavaliers throwing a very large sum of money out of the window to help them escape from Cromwell’s army. Frances pointed out that there was no evidence for this beyond tall tales written to discredit the royalist forces.

When we arrived back at the car park we looked up the hill to the site of Indio. Frances explained that this meant ‘beyond the water’. In the past it was wrongly assumed to mean a religious house and although the land of Indio was owned by St John’s Hospital Bridgewater in medieval times it was never the site of a convent.

Our afternoon concluded with an excellent cream high tea in the magnificent garden at Colin Turner’s house. While we relaxed we were able to look at the archaeological finds from Frances and Malcolm’s local garden test pit project. The finds included early medieval Totnes ware and of course many examples from the more modern Bovey Tracey Pottery.

Frances Billinge