Kingskerswell

History

Beginnings

There are several prehistoric sites on the high ground surrounding Kingskerswell, such as the Iron Age sites of Milber Down, Berry's Wood and Dainton. Kerswell Down, just to the west of the village, is the site of a late Bronze Age/early Iron Age field system, and a hoard of over 2,000 (small copper or brass){{cite book |access-date=23 June 2010 |access-date=23 June 2010

The Aller Brook and its tributaries lie in a shallow, wide and marshy valley that drains roughly north-westerly from the outskirts of Torquay to the estuary of the River Teign at Newton Abbot. There is one point in this valley where two spurs of land form a narrow crossing point, and it was here that an ancient track from St Marychurch and Coffinswell crossed the valley on its way west towards Ipplepen and Totnes. A bridge, known as Dacca Bridge or Daccabridge, was constructed here and this is where the village developed, on the western bank.

The first written record of Kingskerswell is in the Domesday Book where it is called Carsewelle. Before the Norman Conquest it was held by Edward the Confessor as part of the royal demesne; afterwards it continued in royal ownership under William the Conqueror and his descendants (in contrast to the nearby village of Abbotskerswell).

After being granted to several lords, but always escheating to the king due to the lack of any heirs, In 1268 his son, Roger de Molis, was granted the right to hold a weekly market on Tuesdays and an annual fair on 1 September.{{cite web |access-date=4 July 2010

John Dinham (or "Dynham") eventually gained his inheritance in 1381. He died in 1428 but the manor remained in his family until 1501. On the death of John Dynham, 1st Baron Dynham in that year, his lands were divided between his four sisters and the portion that included Kingskerswell passed to his eldest sister, Margery, and eventually to Henry Compton, 1st Baron Compton. By 1710 the manor was owned by Sir Henry Langford who passed it to Thomas Brown; in 1972 the lord of the manor was T.H. Langford Brown of Littlehempston.

The church and manor house

A church is mentioned in the Domesday entry for Kingskerswell: "Also to the church of this manor belongs half a virgate of land",{{cite book though this does not necessarily imply the existence of a building; it may just represent a group of Christians under some form of rectorship or similar administration.{{Citation

The church, which is dedicated to St Mary, may have parts dating to the 14th century, most notably the tower. It remained a chapel under the administration of the parish of St Marychurch until the 1530s when the present building was started. It was extended in the 15th century by converting the transepts into aisles.{{cite book |orig-year=1952 |access-date=3 July 2010}} and has an uncommon image of Saint Apollonia, the patron saint of toothache sufferers, in the form of ancient stained glass in one of the south windows.{{cite web |access-date=2 July 2010 |archive-date=5 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100805075417/http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/Kingskerswell/Stabb-Kingskerswell.html |url-status=dead

Just to the north-west of the church are the ruins of a manor house, probably built by the same Sir John Dinham – a document of 1387 confirms that he had a manor house and chapel here in that year. It is not known when the manor house fell into disrepair, but a mention in a lease suggests that it was probably still in good condition in 1681. The ruins were listed (as grade II) in 1955 and were for many years obscured by trees and vegetation. There are several walls, the base of a tower with features in dressed granite and part of an arch.{{cite web |access-date=31 December 2010}} Since 2000 some clearance and conservation work has been undertaken at the site with the assistance of the South West England Environmental Trust,{{cite web |access-date=31 December 2010 |archive-date=16 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716171749/http://www.sweet-uk.com/sweet/sweetprojects.html |url-status=dead

Since 1800

Kingskerswell was made an independent parish, separated for the first time from St Marychurch, in 1828 and the first incumbent was Aaron Neck (born 1769). In his later life he was very generous to the parish, helping to provide new pews, an organ and an altar-piece for the church and increasing its glebe-lands, as well as building and supporting a school for 60 children. He also built himself a new vicarage in 1836.

In the 1830s lord of the manor Henry Langford Brown built Barton Hall on a site about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south east of the church, now on the borders of Torquay. Barton Hall was requisitioned during World War II and left afterwards in a poor state. It was sold to a group of businessmen in 1947 and ten years later sold on to Fred Pontin who turned it into one of the flagships of Pontin's, his holiday empire. The hall and surrounding lands then passed through several owners, and as of 2010 are being run by PGL Travel Ltd. as a centre for schools and youth activity courses, English as a Foreign Language groups and Family Adventure breaks.{{cite web |access-date=24 June 2010}}

The arrival of the Newton Abbot to Kingswear railway line in the late 1840s had a dramatic effect as it was driven through the centre of the village. It caused extensive changes to the original road layout, including severing the ancient route over Daccabridge; as well as the demolition of several properties and disturbance to the natural drainage pattern of the local springs and streams. Between 1853 and 1964 the village had its own railway station on this line.{{cite book |access-date=23 June 2010 |archive-date=13 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110613202252/http://www.teignbridge.gov.uk/media/pdf/8/d/Listed_Buildings_List.pdf |url-status=dead

The Aller Vale Pottery was set up on the north side of the village in 1865, originally producing earthenware goods.{{cite web |access-date=3 July 2010}} It started producing art pottery in 1881 and continued (in name at least) until 1962. In 1886 the pottery was visited by Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria, after she had bought some of its wares. This was the start of a long period of patronage and led to the pottery being renamed as the Royal Aller Vale Pottery. Other members of the Royal family also became customers, including Princess Alexandra. At the end of the 19th century Aller Vale Art Pottery was stocked by Liberty & Co in London.

In the 19th century the village was well known for the production of cider and much of the land to the east of the main road now occupied by housing estates was once covered by apple orchards. In a commercial directory of 1870 Richard Codner is shown as a cider merchant.{{cite web |access-date=5 July 2010}}

From the 1930s to the 1960s there was greyhound racing at a track opposite the Hare and Hounds pub.

Today

In the 2001 census the population of Kingskerswell was 4799. The village has a health centre, a variety of small shops including a chemist, a village garage, hairdressers and a co-op; and a library which survived a threat of closure in 2006. The village post office closed for the first time in July 2019, but successful efforts to reinstate it resulted in a service resuming in September 2022 from the original post office premises on Fore Street. This service was short-lived however, closing again by August 2024 due to a lack of income.

There is also a modern primary school, a number of pre-school playgroups and a Scout group with their headquarters on Dobbin Arch In 2014 Navigators USA opened their first alternative scouting group in Kingskerswell. Since 1989, Kingskerswell has been twinned with the German town of Lonsee.{{cite web |access-date=23 June 2010}}

There are six churches in the village: Anglican, Catholic, Community, Gospel Hall, Methodist and United Reformed.

From various points in the village there are views towards Dartmoor National Park. To the west is the woodland of Kerswell Downs, the eastern half of which (some 30 acres (120,000 m2) of woodland and grassland) was gifted to the parish by Thomas Hercules Langford Brown, descendant of Henry Langford Brown who built Barton Hall, for the Millennium year 2000;{{cite web |access-date=7 July 2010

The local council (Teignbridge) considers that parts of the village have great character and may have archaeological interest. Consequently, it has designated a conservation area of 3.5 hectares around the ruins of the manor house on the west side of the valley within which further development must be severely restricted.

The Kingskerswell Bypass

The A380 road from Newton Abbot to Torquay was formerly a turnpike road.{{cite web |access-date=23 June 2010 |access-date=23 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615154718/http://www.devon.gov.uk/kkbp-02background.pdf |archive-date=15 June 2011 |url-status=dead |access-date=23 June 2010 |archive-date=13 April 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090413103238/http://www.kingskerswell-bypass.co.uk/site/road/history.php |url-status=dead |access-date=23 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080705054311/http://www.devon.gov.uk/index/transport/kingskerswellbypass/kingskerswellbypass-wayforward.htm |archive-date=5 July 2008 |url-status=dead |access-date=23 June 2010 |access-date=14 December 2010 The bypass was opened to traffic on 15 December.

Notable people

• Samuel Barter, a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly.
• Nicholas de Moels held the manor from 1230.
• Samuel Codner, baptised here in 1776, and part of a local family with long-standing links to the Newfoundland cod-fishing industry, set up the Newfoundland School Society in 1823.{{cite web |access-date=23 June 2010}}
• Edward Steere, who became the Bishop of Nyasaland in 1874, had his first curacy at St Mary's church. He married Mary Beatrice Brown of Barton Hall in 1858.{{cite web |access-date=23 June 2010 |archive-date=5 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100805075405/http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/Kingskerswell/ |url-status=dead
• Mike Sangster, one of the leading British tennis players of the 1960s, was born here in 1940.

References

Sources

• {{cite book
• {{Citation
• {{cite web |access-date=31 December 2010}} (pdf file)

References

1. "Parishes: Cadbury - Clawton | British History Online".
2. "Ward population 2011".
3. but in 1878 they were said to bear inscriptions of [[Gallienus]], [[Marcus Claudius Tacitus. Tacitus]], [[Marcus Aurelius Probus. Probus]] and others.Walker (1972), p. 195 quoting J. T. White (1878) ''Directory of Devon'', p. 562
4. Walker (1972), p. 195
5. [https://opendomesday.org/place/SX8867/kingskerswell/ Open Domesday Online: Kingskerswell], accessed July 2017
6. The first part of the village's name represents this royal ownership. The [[Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain#Linguistic evidence
7. Walker (1972), pp. 200–203
8. Walker (1972), pp. 204–205
9. Walker (1972), p. 205
10. Walker (1972), pp. 205, 213–214
11. Rogers, W.H. Hamilton, The Strife of the Roses and Days of the Tudors in the West, Exeter, 1890, p.140, footnote
12. Chope, R. Pearse, The Book of Hartland, Torquay, 1940, Chapter V, pp.26–37, The Dynham Family, p.30
13. Walker (1972), p. 207
14. Teignbridge District Conservation Area Character Appraisals—Kingskerswell, p. 10
15. Walker (1972), p. 211–212
16. Goodge, Mark "[http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-84893-viaduct-over-railway-line-kingskerswell Viaduct over Railway Line – Kingskerswell – Devon – England]" and "[http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-84894-dobbin-arch-kingskerswell Dobbin Arch – Kingskerswell – Devon – England]" British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 23 June 2010
17. Teignbridge District Conservation Area Character Appraisals—Kingskerswell, p. 8
18. Teignbridge District Conservation Area Character Appraisals—Kingskerswell, p. 5
19. Carsewella (2003) p. 61
20. Carsewella (2003) p. 65
21. [http://www.achome.co.uk/pictorial/liberty.htm Directory of Liberty Manufacturers] Retrieved 7 February 2007
22. Carsewella (2003) p. 23
23. link. (27 February 2006 Retrieved 7 February 2007)
24. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/6167896.stm BBC News article about library closures in Devon] Retrieved 7 February 2007
25. Clarke, Lewis. (2022-09-21). "Post Office changes in Kingskerswell will bring additional service hours".
26. (2024-08-09). "Newton Abbot Post Office issues reduce hours as staff resign en masse". Mid-Devon Advertiser.
27. "1st Kingskerswell Scout Group.". 1st Kingskerswell Scouts.
28. (June 2025). "Kingskerswell Navigators.". Kingskerswell Navigators.
29. Teignbridge District Conservation Area Character Appraisals—Kingskerswell, pp. 3, 6
30. (29 November 2011). "Kingskerswell bypass work could start in 2012". BBC News.
31. (2015-12-15). "South Devon Link Road opens between Torbay and Newton Abbot". BBC News.