Kingsbridge is a market town and tourist hub in the
South Hams
South Hams is a local government district on the south coast of Devon, England. Services divide between those provided by its own Council headquartered in Totnes, and those provided by Devon County Council headquartered in the city of Exete ...
district of
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, with a population of 6,116 at the
2011 census. Two
electoral wards
The wards and electoral divisions in the United Kingdom are electoral districts at sub-national level, represented by one or more councillors. The ward is the primary unit of English electoral geography for civil parishes and borough and dist ...
bear the name of ''Kingsbridge'' (East & North). Their combined population at the above census was 4,381. It is situated at the northern end of the
Kingsbridge Estuary
The Kingsbridge Estuary (also, erroneously, known as the 'Salcombe Estuary') in the South Hams area of Devon, England runs from Kingsbridge in the north to its mouth at the English Channel near Salcombe and lies between Bolt Head and Sharpitor t ...
, a
ria
A ria (; gl, ría) is a coastal inlet formed by the partial submergence of an unglaciated river valley. It is a drowned river valley that remains open to the sea.
Definitions
Typically rias have a dendritic, treelike outline although they ca ...
that extends to the sea six miles south of the town. It is the third largest settlement in the South Hams and is 17 miles (27 km) southwest of
Torquay
Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignton ...
and 17 miles (27 km) southeast of
Plymouth
Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west.
Plymouth ...
.
History
![Kingsbridge-devon-uk-clock](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Kingsbridge-devon-uk-clock.JPG)
The town formed around a bridge which was built in or before the 10th century between the royal estates of
Alvington, to the west, and
Chillington, to the east, hence giving it the name of Kyngysbrygge ("King's bridge"). In 1219
[ W. G. Hoskins, ''Devon'', 1954] the Abbot of
Buckfast was granted the right to hold a market there, and by 1238 the settlement had become a
borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
In the Middle Ag ...
.
The manor remained in possession of the abbot until the
Dissolution of the Monasteries, when it was granted to Sir William Petre. Kingsbridge was never represented in Parliament or incorporated by charter, the local government being by a
portreeve
A portreeve ( ang, hæfenrēfa, sometimes spelled Port-reeve) or port warden is the title of a historical official in England and Wales possessing authority (political, administrative, or fiscal) over a town. The details of the office have fluctu ...
. It lay within the
hundred
100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101.
In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...
of Stanborough.
[Parishes – Kelly – Knowstone , British History Online]
/ref>
Kingsbridge is in fact a combination of two towns, Kingsbridge and Dodbrooke. Dodbrooke was granted its own market in 1257 and had become a borough by 1319. While Dodbrooke was originally considered to be the dominant of the two, Kingsbridge later expanded to include it. The town consists of two ecclesiastical parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...
es: St. Edmund's in the west and St. Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket (), also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London and later Thomas à Becket (21 December 1119 or 1120 – 29 December 1170), was an English nobleman who served as Lord Chancellor from 1155 to 1162, and then ...
at Dodbrooke in the east. St. Edmund's Church, in mainly Perpendicular
In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It can ...
style, retains some 13th-century features including a font
In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design.
In mod ...
, but was enlarged and reconsecrated around 1414 and was mostly rebuilt in the 19th century. The parish church of St. Thomas Becket displays a particularly well-preserved rood screen, restored in 1897.
In 1798 the town mills were converted into a woollen manufactory, which produced large quantities of cloth, and serge Serge may refer to:
*Serge (fabric), a type of twill fabric
*Serge (llama) (born 2005), a llama in the Cirque Franco-Italien and internet meme
*Serge (name), a masculine given name (includes a list of people with this name)
*Serge (post), a hitchi ...
manufacture was introduced early in the 19th century. During the 19th century the town had an active coastal shipping trade, shipbuilding, a tannery, other industries and a large monthly cattle market. The chief exports were cider, corn, malt, and slate.[Parishes – Kelly – Knowstone , British History Online]
/ref>
Kingsbridge was used by Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope (; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among his best-known works is a series of novels collectively known as the '' Chronicles of Barsetshire'', which revolves ar ...
as the setting for his novel Rachel Ray (1863) and by Rachel Joyce as the setting for her 2012 novel The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
''The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry'' is a novel by Rachel Joyce, published in 2012. Joyce's first novel, it was a long-list finalist (top 12) for the 2012 Man Booker Prize,Wakin, Daniel J. (25 July 2012). AshantMan Booker Prize Finalists A ...
. In October 2021 Embankment Films started filming in Kingsbridge for the big screen version of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
''The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry'' is a novel by Rachel Joyce, published in 2012. Joyce's first novel, it was a long-list finalist (top 12) for the 2012 Man Booker Prize,Wakin, Daniel J. (25 July 2012). AshantMan Booker Prize Finalists A ...
, starring Jim Broadbent, Penelope Wilton, Monika Gossmann and Bethan Cullinane. The film is due to be released in 2022.
The town centre retains many 18th and 19th century buildings. The Shambles, or market arcade, was rebuilt in 1796 but retains its 16th century granite piers. The former grammar school, now a museum, was founded and built by Thomas Crispin in 1670.
Modern day
Kingsbridge has been the main market town in the area for centuries. Being situated within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
The South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) covers 337 square kilometres, including much of the South Hams area of Devon and the rugged coastline from Jennycliff Bay to Elberry Cove near Brixham. The purpose of an Area of Outstandi ...
(AONB) and with its proximity to the south Devon coast and sailing venues such as Salcombe
Salcombe is a popular resort town in the South Hams district of Devon, south west England. The town is close to the mouth of the Kingsbridge Estuary, mostly built on the steep west side of the estuary. It lies within the South Devon Area o ...
, the town has developed into a popular tourist destination. Its attractions include several restaurants, pubs, a cinema housed in the old Kingsbridge Town Hall
Kingsbridge Town Hall is a municipal building in Fore Street, Kingsbridge, Devon, England. The town hall, which is currently used as a cinema, is a Grade II listed building.
History
The town hall was built and financed by a specially formed com ...
building, and a museum devoted to the chemist William Cookworthy
William Cookworthy (12 April 170517 October 1780) was an English Quaker minister, a successful pharmacist and an innovator in several fields of technology. He was the first person in Britain to discover how to make hard-paste porcelain, like ...
who was born in the town in 1705.
There are two supermarkets
A supermarket is a self-service shop offering a wide variety of food, beverages and household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earlier grocery stores, but is smaller and more limit ...
in Kingsbridge: a Morrisons
Wm Morrison Supermarkets, trading as Morrisons, is the fifth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, the company had 497 supermarkets across England, Wales and Scotland, as well as one in Gibraltar. The company is headqu ...
and a Tesco
Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...
Store, which opened in 2010. It also has a large secondary school, Kingsbridge Community College, which has over 1,000 pupils and serves the surrounding area. Kingsbridge is home to "the only nightclub in the South Hams", ''Coast'', with the next nearest club being in Torquay
Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignton ...
.
The town is linked to Plymouth
Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west.
Plymouth ...
and Dartmouth by the A379 road, and to Salcombe
Salcombe is a popular resort town in the South Hams district of Devon, south west England. The town is close to the mouth of the Kingsbridge Estuary, mostly built on the steep west side of the estuary. It lies within the South Devon Area o ...
and Totnes
Totnes ( or ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish at the head of the estuary of the River Dart in Devon, England, within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is about west of Paignton, about west-so ...
by the A381. For seventy years it had a railway station until the branch line
A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line.
Industrial spur
An industr ...
, via South Brent, was closed in 1963 as part of the Beeching cuts
The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised British Rail, railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Develop ...
. An industrial estate now occupies the site of the former station yard, but a railway bridge and a short section of overgrown embankment can still be seen.
Kingsbridge has its own Parish Council with an elected Town Mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...
.
Geography
Twin town
* Weilerbach
Weilerbach is a municipality in the district of Kaiserslautern, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated approximately 11 km north-west of Kaiserslautern.
Weilerbach is the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality" ...
,
A twinning arrangement with Isigny-sur-Mer
Isigny-sur-Mer (, literally ''Isigny on Sea'') is a commune in the Calvados department and Normandy region of north-western France.
It is part of the communauté de communes Isigny-Omaha Intercom, the 59 communes of which have a combined pop ...
in Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
, France, ended in 2019 after 58 years.
Cultural associations
A song titled "Farewell to Kingsbridge" was collected by Sabine Baring-Gould
Sabine Baring-Gould ( ; 28 January 1834 – 2 January 1924) of Lew Trenchard in Devon, England, was an Anglican priest, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist, folk song collector and eclectic scholar. His bibliography consists of more than 1,240 ...
at Lydford, Devon. It belongs to the years 1778-80 when soldiers stationed here had to depart for North America.[Reeves, James (1960) ''The Everlasting Circle''. London: Heinemann; p. 110]Bigbury Mint Ltd
based near Plymouth in Devon, has issued two commemorative coins for the town of Kingsbridge. The Kingsbridge Crown is 36mm in diameter, struck in solid silver, hallmarked at the London Assay Office and stamped with the Bigbury Mint makers mark. The obverse of the coin features a royal crown and a 3-arched bridge over the river Avon. The reverse of the coin features the town clock on the old Kingsbridge Town Hall Building (now the town cinema) along with the Kingsbridge Coat of Arms. The smaller quarter crown coin is struck in copper, 23 mm in diameter and features the same images as the larger crown coin.
Notable residents
* William Cookworthy
William Cookworthy (12 April 170517 October 1780) was an English Quaker minister, a successful pharmacist and an innovator in several fields of technology. He was the first person in Britain to discover how to make hard-paste porcelain, like ...
(1705–1780), the discoverer of English china clay
Kaolinite ( ) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is an important industrial mineral. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedra ...
and producer of the first English porcelain
Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises mainl ...
, was born in the town.
* John Wolcot
John Wolcot (baptised 9 May 1738 – 14 January 1819) was an English satirist, who wrote under the pseudonym of "Peter Pindar".
Life
Wolcot was baptised at Dodbrooke, near Kingsbridge, Devon. In the parish register, his surname was spelled " ...
(1738–1819), poet and satirist who wrote under the name of "Peter Pindar", was born here.
* George Montagu (1753–1815), naturalist, after whom the bird Montagu's harrier
Montagu's harrier (''Circus pygargus'') is a migratory bird of prey of the harrier family. Its common name commemorates the British naturalist George Montagu.
Taxonomy
The first formal description of Montagu's harrier was by the Swedish na ...
was named, lived before his death at Knowle House, Kingsbridge, having been born in Wiltshire.
* John Scoble (1799– d. after 1867), anti-slavery campaigner in Britain and Canada, was born in Kingsbridge.
* William Henry Squire
William Henry Squire, ARCM (8 August 1871 – 17 March 1963) was a British cellist, composer and music professor of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He studied cello at the Royal College of Music, and became professor of cello at the Roya ...
(1871–1963), composer, was educated in Kingsbridge.
* Vincent Harris
Emanuel Vincent Harris (26 June 1876 – 1 August 1971), often known as E. Vincent Harris, was an English architect who designed several important public buildings in traditional styles.
Early life
He was born in Devonport, Devon, and e ...
(1876–1971), architect, was educated in the town.
* Maurice Fox-Strangways, 9th Earl of Ilchester
Group Captain Maurice Vivian de Touffreville Fox-Strangways, 9th Earl of Ilchester (1 April 1920 – 2 July 2006), styled Lord Stavordale between 1964 and 1970, was a British engineer. He served in the Royal Air Force for 40 years, from 1936 to ...
(1920–2006), RAF officer and nuclear weapons engineer
Military technology is the application of technology for use in warfare. It comprises the kinds of technology that are distinctly military in nature and not civilian in application, usually because they lack useful or legal civilian application ...
, was educated here.
* Sir William Mitchell (1925–2002), physicist, was born here.
* Mark Ellis (born 1988), professional footballer currently with Tranmere Rovers
* Giselle Ansley (1992–), England and Great Britain hockey player
* William Stone (1900-2009), Last Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
Veteran
A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in a particular occupation or field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in a military.
A military veteran that has ...
of the Great War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
living in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
.
See also
* South Hams Hospital
References
(Some text may have been edited).
Further reading
* Fox, Sarah Prideaux (1874) ''Kingsbridge Estuary: with rambles in the neighbourhood''. Kingsbridge, Devon: Cookworthy Museum, 1982 (reissued)
* --do.-- (1974) ''Kingsbridge and its Surroundings''. Plymouth (England): Printed for the compiler by G. P. Friend (first edition published as "Kingsbridge estuary, with rambles in the neighbourhood")
External links
Kingsbridge Tourist Information Centre
*
{{authority control
Towns in Devon
Market towns in Devon
Civil parishes in South Hams