Tiverton, Devon
| Tiverton | |
|---|---|
| Population | 18,621 (2001 Census) |
| OS grid reference | SS955125 |
| Civil parish |
|
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | TIVERTON |
| Postcode district | EX16 |
| Dialling code | 01884 |
| Police | Devon and Cornwall |
| Fire | Devon and Somerset |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| UK Parliament | |
Tiverton is an English town in the County of Devon. Tiverton is the major town in Mid Devon. It is also the administrative centre for the Mid Devon district, its population is about 20,000.[1]
History
The town's name is conjectured to derive from 'Twy-ford-ton' or 'Twyverton', meaning 'the town on two fords'. The town stands at the confluence of the rivers Exe and Lowman. Human occupation in the area dates back to the Stone Age, with many flint tools found in the area. An Iron Age hill fort, Cranmore Castle stands at the top of Exeter Hill above the town, and a Roman fort, or rather marching camp, was discovered on the hillside below Knightshayes Court near Bolham, just to the north of the town.
Tiverton owes its early growth and prosperity to the wool trade which caused the town to grow rapidly in the 16th and 17th Centuries Many wealthier wool merchants added to the town's heritage: for example, John Greenway (1460–1529) added a chapel to St Peter's Parish Church in 1517, and a small chapel and almshouses in Gold Street which still stand; the Almshouse Trust still houses people today. Peter Blundell, another wealthy merchant, who died in 1601, bequeathed the funds and land to found Blundell's School to educate local children. The school was founded in Tiverton in 1604, and in 1882 relocated to its present location on the outskirts of town, where it functions to the present day as an independent school[2]
By the turn of the 18th century the wool trade was peaking, and a century of turmoil followed during the early Industrial Revolution with many riots by the town's newly formed societies of Woolcombers and Weavers. By the end of the century, due to imports of cotton and the expansion of industrialization elsewhere, along with the effect of the Napoleonic Wars on exports, the town's woollen industry was in terminal decline.[3]
In 1815, the industrialist John Heathcoat bought an old woollen mill on the river Exe with a view to setting up a lace manufactory in the town. Following the destruction of his lace-making machinery in Loughborough by former Luddites in the pay of the lacemakers of Nottingham, he moved his entire operation to Tiverton. [4] factory turned the fortunes of Tiverton around once again, and it became an early industrial centre in the South West. Trade was aided when a branch of the Grand Western Canal from Taunton to Tiverton was opened in 1838, followed shortly afterwards by a Branch of the Great Western Railway in 1848.
It gained a reputation as one of the rotten boroughs targeted by those seeking electoral reform. Although small, it had two MPs representing it. Lord Palmerston, or 'Pam' as he was known locally, was one of these MPs for a large part of the 19th century. In 1847, the Chartists, a radical group seeking to change the electoral system, stood one of their leaders, George Julian Harney, against Palmerston. He is widely reported as having gained no votes - but in fact he won the 'popular vote' (A show of hands of the people of the town), and withdrew when Palmerston called a ballot, aware that he would lose in a vote consisting only of the wealthy and propertied in the town. Only 400 out of a population of 7000 were entitled to vote at that time, which is one of the things the Chartists sought to change. After the Reform Act of 1867, Tiverton had just one MP. The seat has generally been held by a member of the Heathcoat-Amory family, most recently Derick Heathcoat-Amory who served as MP from 1945 to 1960. David Heathcoat-Amory is now the MP for Wells in nearby Somerset.
The town was the last in the Devon and Cornwall area to retain an independent police force, until 1945. In the second half of the 20th century, Tiverton once again slowly declined in prosperity, as the Heathcoat factory became ever more mechanised, and the Starkey Knight & Ford Brewery was taken over by Whitbread as its regional brewery, but later closed, becoming just a bottling plant. It then lay derelict for some years before being demolished to make way for a supermarket and multi-storey car-park. The manufacture of agricultural machinery adjacent to the River Lowman dwindled, the Railway closed in 1964 and the Globe Elastic plant in Kennedy Way also closed down in the 1980's. However, also in this period a few far-sighted individuals, most notably probably William Authers, secured some important assets for the future of the Town. The Tiverton Museum was opened during this time, the trackbed of the old Railway was bought up and now remains as footpaths and the Adventure Playground, and the Grand Western Canal was saved from dereliction and revived as a Country Park.
During the 1990s, retailing in the town declined still further after the opening of the Southern Relief Road (now Western Way) led to the closure of Fore Street in the town centre to all but pedestrian traffic. This decline has been reversed by various regeneration projects, and Tiverton now thrives, especially on the main Market Days of Tuesday and Friday.
Recent expansion
Tiverton's revival in recent years began with the construction of the A361 (known as the North Devon Link Road), in the late 1980s. In the 1990s, a new industrial estate was built at Little Gornhay on the north-eastern edge of the town, and a new junction was added to the Link Road, with a distributor road (now the A396) into the town, which has become its main gateway. Western Way, linking this road to the Exeter Road along the line of the old railway, was also constructed. These two roads opened up a new aspect to the town, and paved the way for expansion.
The demand for housing in the UK and particularly in the South-West has driven house prices up, and many now look to towns on the periphery of employment centres. Tiverton has become a popular dormitory town for commuters to Exeter and Taunton, and this growth has been supported by large housing projects to the north of the town by most national house builders including Westbury Homes, Barrett Homes and Bellway Homes. The resulting influx of population has led to further development of the town's services and shops. The town now has a newly-built hospital, funded by the Private Finance Initiative, which has left the old hospital derelict in the town centre. It has also replaced its out-of-date swimming pool with a new Leisure Centre (swimming pool and small gymnasium), which is near the main campus of the East Devon College, re-branded as Petroc after its amalgamation with North Devon College in 2009 - the largest local Further Education college. Additionally Mid Devon District Council has recently built new offices at Phoenix House at the foot of Phoenix Lane, close to the site of the old Starkey, Knight & Ford Brewery. The building incorporates a new public library.
In the Autumn of 2005, Tesco opened a store on the site of the old Lowman Works, at the edge of the town centre, vacating their former premises on Fore Street. The town's local retail commerce has improved somewhat, with large numbers of shoppers choosing to park free in the Tesco car park, and walk into the town centre to use other shops and facilities. Around the same time, the Safeway store completed its refit to a Morrisons after the takeover of Safeway. In 2006, the national catalogue chain store Argos occupied the former Tesco site in Fore Street. In late 2006, the main Somerfield store (formerly a Kwik Save store) on the old Brewery site closed its doors for the final time, a Somerfield remaining in the centre of town in Market Walk. In March 2007, a new Marks & Spencer Simply Food store opened in its place. The Pannier Market in the town has recently been redeveloped at a cost of more than £3 million, alongside its car park and minor shopping precinct, increasing market capacity and allowing markets to be held more frequently.
In 2007 the only remaining cinema, the Tivoli, which had previously been mostly run by volunteers, closed its doors, and the site was for sale and derelict: and the other former cinema, the Electric, was bulldozed for redevelopment as housing. After a well-supported public campaign, the Tivoli reopened on June 28 2008, bought by Merlin Cinemas from former owner Francis Eastmond (whose family had owned Eastmond's, an upmarket Department Store, now named Banbury's after its acquisition by Banbury's of Barnstaple). There is also a film club in Tiverton.
In December 2008, the local press reported that the town may need a new High School (funding for which has been agreed in 2009), as well as two more Primary Schools. This came as the Town Council considered plans for a further two thousand homes, plus extra industrial estates, additional shops, new employment space and more community facilities. Some of this proposed expansion has been vigorously opposed by local Action Groups throughout 2009.
Geography
Climate
Tiverton has an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb).
| Climate data for Tiverton | |||||||||||||
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| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
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Education
- Petroc - Formerly known as East Devon College, A Further Education College which shares a Campus with the High School (Below).
- Tiverton High School, the local community secondary school and a specialist visual arts college.
- Witheridge V.P.(C) School
- Two Moors Primary School
- The Castle Primary School
- Heathcoat Primary School
- Halberton Primary School
- East Anstey County Primary School
- Rackenford Primary School
- Tidcombe Primary School
- Wilcombe Primary School
- Blundell's School, an independent school located just outside Tiverton.
Sport
- Tiverton Town
- Westexe Rovers
- Elmore FC
- Twyford Spartans
- Moors FC
- Tiverton Rugby Club
- Tiverton Cricket Club
- Heathcoat Cricket Club
- Tiverton Swimming Club
- [Tiverton Water Polo][1]
- Tiverton Tennis Club
- Tiverton White Eagles Hockey Club
- Tiverton Taekwondo Club][2] training at Moorhayes community centre.
- Tiverton Boxing Club (Westexe Area)
- Tiverton Golf Club
- Padbrook Park Golf
- Tiverton Parkway Golf
- Tiverton Bowling Club
- Tiverton Westend Bowling Club
- Tiverton Borough Bowling Club
- Mid Devon Indoor Bowls Centre
- Willows Dancing Club
- Baitbukit Fishing
- Cowgirl Twisters Line Dancing Club
- Grand western Horse Boating
- Tiverton Town Majorettes][3]
Tiverton Gazette
The Tiverton Gazette is a weekly tabloid newspaper for the Mid Devon town of Tiverton and has always been published on Tuesday to coincide with the market day. It first appeared as the Tiverton Gazette and East Devon Herald in 1858. Founder Robert Were was only 22 years old, and died just five years later. The newspaper split into three editions in 1872: the Tiverton Gazette, the Crediton Gazette and the South Molton Gazette. It was re-merged in the mid-1890s as the Mid Devon Gazette, but then split into Town and Rural editions before splitting three ways again. Currently there are three reporters, a photographer and the community publisher for www.tivertonpeople.co.uk based in their Bapton Street office.
Railways
The Bristol and Exeter Railway opened a station, known as "Tiverton Road" on 1 May 1844. It was renamed "Tiverton Junction" on 12 June 1848 when Tiverton railway station was opened nearer the town at the end of a branch from the Junction station. A second branch, the Exe Valley line reached this station from the south, branching off the London to Penzance main line at Stoke Canon and following the line of the River Exe; main line trains were occasionally diverted via Tiverton if there was engineering work or damage on the section north of Stoke Canon. Another line was opened which headed north to join the Taunton - Barnstaple line at Dulverton. None of these lines remain.
In 1986, Tiverton Parkway railway station was opened on the main line at the site of the old Sampford Peverell station to replace the old junction station which was a few miles down the line at Willand. As a parkway station, it is located seven miles east of the town, alongside Junction 27 of the M5 motorway. Its proximity to the motorway - and relative inaccessibility of Exeter St Davids railway station means that the station is often used as a coach exchange when the line between Exeter and Plymouth is closed.
See also
References
- ^ Parish statistics, Neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk. Retrieved on 2007-07-09.
- ^ Martin Dunsford, Historical Memoirs of Tiverton (Brice, Exeter, 1790)
- ^ Martin Dunsford, Historical Memoirs of Tiverton (Brice, Exeter, 1790)
- ^ W. Gore Allen, John Heathcoat and his Heritage (Christopher Johnson, London, 1958)
- ^ Tiverton travel information Weather Channel UK Retrieved 2009-04-04