Buckfastleigh
Buckfastleigh is a small market town in
Devon,
England on the
A38 at the edge of
Dartmoor National Park. It is part of
Teignbridge District Council and (for ecclesiastical purposes) lies within the
Totnes Deanery. It has a population of about 5,000. It is a centre of tourism, and is home to
Buckfast Abbey, the
South Devon Railway, and the
Buckfastleigh Butterfly Farm and Otter Sanctuary.
Geographically, Buckfastleigh straddles the confluence of two small streams from
Dartmoor which feed into the
River Dart just to the east of the town. About one mile to the north lies Buckfast, home of
Buckfast Abbey. To the northwest lie
Holne and
Scorriton on the southern ramparts of the Dartmoor massif.
The original settlement was at Buckfast, where an
abbey was founded by
King Canute around 1030. For some reason this abbey perished by the early 12th century but it was refounded by monks from
Savigny in 1134-36. The abbey passed to
Cistercian rule in 1148 and remained so until the
Dissolution.
Buckfastleigh itself was
The Clearing of Buckfast, and probably originated in the 13th century. It developed slowly as a wool town and by the mid 19th century had 4 woollen mills and 2 corn mills.
A railway branch from Totnes to
Ashburton was opened in 1872 which passed just to the east of the town. The section from Buckfastleigh to Totnes is now operated as a
heritage railway by the
South Devon Railway Trust.
Census data shows that in 1801 the population was 1525, and 2781 in 1901.
Through the ages several of the sons and daughters of Buckfastleigh families have earned a place in history, scholarship or commerce. One illustrative example is provided by Professor
William Hosking, who became, in 1840, the first Professor of Architecture at
King's College in
London.
