Everything about Buckfastleigh totally explained
Buckfastleigh is a small
market town in
Devon,
England on the
A38 at the edge of
Dartmoor National Park. It is part of
Teignbridge District Council and
South Hams District Council and (for ecclesiastical purposes) lies within the
Totnes Deanery. It has a
population of about 5,000. It is a centre of
tourism, and is home to
Buckfast Abbey, the
South Devon Railway, and the Buckfastleigh
Butterfly Farm and
Otter Sanctuary.
Geography
Geographically, Buckfastleigh straddles the
confluence of two small streams from
Dartmoor which feed into the
River Dart just to the east of the town. About one mile to the north lies Buckfast, home of
Buckfast Abbey. To the northwest lie
Holne and
Scorriton on the southern ramparts of the Dartmoor
massif.
Pridhamsleigh Cavern is nearby and is neighboured by
Ashburton and Lower Dean.
History
Buckfast Abbey was founded by Earl Aylward in the reign of
King Canute in
1018. In
1147 it became a
Cistercian abbey and was rebuilt in stone. In
medieval times, the abbey became rich through fishing and trading in
sheep wool, although the
Black Death killed two
abbots and many
monks - by
1377 there were only fourteen monks at Buckfast.
On
25 February 1539,
William Petre arrived at Buckfast and declared the abbey to be dissolved by the order of
King Henry VIII. The
Dissolution of the Monasteries left monks compelled to leave and the buildings were looted, then destroyed. The abbey then stood in ruins for over two hundred years.
On 28 October
1882, six
Benedictine monks arrived at Buckfast having been exiled from
France. The land had been leased by monks from the
St. Augustine's
Priory in
Ramsgate and it was later bought for £4,700. The first new abbot was Boniface Natter, who died in a shipwreck in
1906. His travelling companion Anscar Vonier became the next abbot and pledged to fulfil his dying wish, namely to rebuild the abbey.
Buckfastleigh itself was
The Clearing of Buckfast, and probably originated in the
13th century. It developed slowly as a
wool town and by the mid
19th century had four
woollen mills and two
corn mills.
A
railway branch from
Totnes to
Ashburton was opened in
1872 which passed just to the east of the town. The section from Buckfastleigh to Totnes is now operated as a
heritage railway by the
South Devon Railway Trust.
Census data shows that in
1801 the population was 1525, and 2781 in
1901.
From Buckfastleigh
Through the ages several of the sons and daughters of Buckfastleigh families have earned a place in history, scholarship or commerce. One illustrative example is provided by Professor
William Hosking, who became, in
1840, the first Professor of Architecture at
King's College in
London.
The curly-coated
Devon Rex cat breed was first discovered in Buckfastleigh in the 1960s and is named after the county in which the town is situated.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Buckfastleigh'.
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