Bovey Tracey
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| Bovey Tracey | |
  Bovey Tracey shown within Devon |
|
| Population | 6929[1] |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | |
| District | Teignbridge |
| Shire county | Devon |
| Region | South West |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | NEWTON ABBOT |
| Postcode district | TQ13 |
| Dialling code | 01626 |
| Police | Devon and Cornwall |
| Fire | Devon and Somerset |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| European Parliament | South West England |
| UK Parliament | Teignbridge |
| List of places: UK • England • Devon | |
Bovey Tracey is a small town in Devon on the edge of Dartmoor, its proximity to which gives rise to the "slogan" used on the town's boundary signs, "The Gateway to the Moor". The locals just call the town "Bovey" (pronounced "Buvvy").
It is near the market town of Moretonhampstead. Roughly between the two lies the small village of North Bovey.
Bovey Tracey is twinned with Le Molay-Littry in Normandy.
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[edit] History
Bovey Tracey was an established Saxon community and was known as Boffa by 500 AD. The town gained its second name from the de Tracey family who were "lords of the manor" after the Norman Conquest. One member of the family, William de Tracey, was implicated in the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170. It is thought that de Tracey rebuilt the parish church of St Peter, St Paul and St Thomas of Canterbury as penance for the murder. The church still stands today and has an unbroken list of vicars from 1258.
During the English Civil War in 1646, Royalist troops were attacked in a local inn by members of Oliver Cromwell's Roundhead army. If local legend is to be believed, the Royalists escaped by throwing coins from the windows in order to distract the poorly paid Roundhead troops. The next day a battle was fought on nearby Bovey Heath ending in victory for Cromwell's army.
The name of Cromwell lives on in the town today in both the popular pub "The Cromwell Arms" and the remains of a nearby stone arch, known locally (and incorrectly) as "Cromwell's Arch". The arch is actually what is left of a priory that stood previously on the site.
Bovey railway station was opened on 26 June 1866 with the new Moretonhampstead and South Devon Railway on a site to the west of the town. It closed to passengers on 28 February 1959, but goods trains continued to operate until 6 July 1970.
[edit] Things to see
- Bovey Tracey Heritage Centre in the old Bovey railway station
- House of Marbles — free visitor attraction on the site of the historic old pottery with marble runs, marble manufacturing and glass blowing demonstrations
- Devon Guild of Craftsmen headquarters
- Headquarters of the Dartmoor National Park Authority at Parke
- A Devon Wildlife Trust nature reserve at Bovey Heath
- The church has a tower dating from the 14th century, many 15th-century carvings and a screen described by Arthur Mee as "one of the finest in this county of fine screens".[1]
[edit] Sport
Bovey Tracey is noted in the cycling community as the start point of the Dartmoor Devil bicycle ride, an annual Audax UK Brevet Populaire event held in late October taking in over 2000m of climbing and over 100km around and across Dartmoor. The ride ends in nearby Manaton.
[edit] Mansion Party
On the Friday of the 14 March 2008, a party in a Grade II-listed mansion near the town gained national and international coverage after up to 2,000 people gatecrashed it. The family blame Radio 1 DJ Pete Tong on his Radio 1 show. In a shout-out item in which he quoted: "We're getting ready for a huge mansion party - 500 plus people going - it's in Bovey Tracey in Devon tipping us off on that, anyone who's listening can come along, apparently, just say 'hi' to Marilyn Monroe on the door". [2]
[edit] References
- ^ Mee, A. The King's England:Devon (Hodder and Stoughton, 1965), p.47.
- ^ Crowds wreck Devon mansion after BBC party "shout-out" http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKL1624916120080316
