Sowton is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

east of Exeter in

East Devon East Devon is a local government district in Devon, England. Its council has been based in Honiton since February 2019, and the largest town is Exmouth (with a population of 34,432 at the time of the 2011 census). The district was formed ...

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 ...

. It has a population of 639. Its parish council merged with that of nearby Clyst St Mary in 1976 to form Bishop's Clyst. St Michael's church was rebuilt in 1844–45, by John Hayward and paid for by John Garratt. He retained the original

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 ca ...

northern arcade. It is a rare example of an early Victorian

Tractarian The Oxford Movement was a movement of high church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the University of O ...

village church. It is a grade I listed building. Sowton has an old village centre but serves as a major Exeter suburb, with a large industrial estate,

park and ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system ( ...

site and modern housing developments. M5 junction 29 near Exeter - geograph

Sowton is also the name of an

industrial estate An industrial park (also known as industrial estate, trading estate) is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more "heavyweight" version of a business park or office park ...

at . The area is located next to the

M5 motorway The M5 is a motorway in England linking the Midlands with the South West England, South West. It runs from junction 8 of the M6 motorway, M6 at West Bromwich near Birmingham to Exeter in Devon. Heading south-west, the M5 runs east of West Brom ...

between junctions 29 and 30, the opposite side from the village and is served by Digby and Sowton railway station. Most of the industrial estate is covered with large retailers, warehousing and distributing, as well as a small number of manufacturers. There is also a

Park and Ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system ( ...

location for bus services to Exeter city centre. For a number of years there has been an office development on the main road which was left incomplete as the economy took a downturn during construction.

References

External links

Villages in Devon Industrial parks in the United Kingdom East Devon District {{Devon-geo-stub