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BUCKFASTLEIGH

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)]

"BUCKFASTLEIGH, a parish and market town in the hundred of Stanborough, in the county of Devon, 5 miles to the N.W. of Totnes. Ashburton is its post town. It is situated in a hilly and beautiful country on the river Dart, and was the site of an abbey, existing as early as the reign of Edward the Confessor, but refounded about 1137 by Ethelward de Pomeroi, for monks of the Cistercian order. It flourished till the Dissolution, and had a revenue of £466. The estate was given to Sir Thomas Dennis, and subsequently many houses were built in the village from the ruins of the abbey. Some slight remains exist about a mile from the village on the E. bank of the Dart. Marble and limestone are quarried in the parish, and in the vicinity are copper-works. Some of the inhabitants are engaged in the woollen manufacture. There is a small ancient market-house. The living is a vicarage* in the diocese of Exeter, of the value of £270, in the patronage of the Rev. M. Lowndes, incumbent. The church, which stands on a hill near the bridge over the Dart, is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. It has transepts and side chapels, and an ancient tower, from which there are fine views of the picturesque scenery of the neighbourhood. The Wesleyans and other Dissenters have chapels here. The charitable endowments for the poor produce about £60 per annum. Buckfastleigh Abbey is a modern mansion in the Tudor style of architecture, erected on the site of the ancient abbey. Friday is the market day. Cattle fairs are held in the village on the third Thursday in June and the second Thursday in September."

Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003