Devon - Culture and Character (MA field project, 1995)
Created | Updated Oct 7, 2005
BACKGROUND
Waterloo commuters know Exeter as the end of the line on the region's longest run; John Cleese made Devon's resort hotels infamous; the Famous Five are among many consumers of Devon cream teas. Other counties may also boast of distance, recreation and rich food, but Devonians, and thousands of annual tourists, will testify to the fact that Devon is a distinctive county. Devon's size contributes to this - only Yorkshire and Lincolnshire are larger. Its size is only partly defined by human boundaries, as it is bordered by the sea to both north and south, never more than 40km away, and within this large area, landscape and human activity can vary considerably
Change has not missed Devon. Shorelines have altered - the gradual silting of the Torridge allowed Bideford to prosper as Barnstaple declined. The medieval bridge over the Exe at Exeter is now high and dry, and the village of Hound Tor on Dartmoor has been deserted for centuries. An inhospitable place to dwell, Dartmoor has always been used for grazing; today's fattening profitmakers, ponies, stand in wet and boggy soil. But the ponies are also standing in a man-made landscape, a remnant of the moor's industrial activity.
Continuity, therefore, is also evident in Devon. Today's magistrates' court is sited within the Norman castle at Exeter, a city which has lost little of its historical importance as a centre of ecclesiastical and political administration. The cathedral and city wall are surrounded by modern buildings; and the quayside is still in use, although the trade there now is connected more with leisure than exports. Continuity of communication routes is an important element in Devon's history - despite the Highways Agency, hollow lanes are still in use and indeed add greatly to the modern Devon travel experience.
VARIETY
The uses to which land can be put are ultimately dependent on the underlying geology, and distinct regions exist within Devon
* the South Hams - gently rolling hills, arable cultivation in fields divided by hedges or hedgebanks.
* Dartmoor - elevated on a plateau of granite, good for building materials but making cultivation very difficult.
* East Devon - ridges and valleys, some arable use of the land but mostly sheep grazing.
Devon's geology has also created considerable barriers to communications within its large area. This has resulted in distinctions probably most visible in architecture, particularly churches, as the more solid the material, the less transportable it was pre-tarmacadam.
The transport developments of the nineteenth century helped to reduce regional variety of building materials throughout the country. Dutch bricks are in evidence in the wealthy merchant houses of Topsham, but these came to the area earlier and by sea; bricks came by rails to build nineteenth century workers' housing in Exeter; Heathcoat's factory housing at Tiverton is brick. Many of the county's towns did not become large manufacturing centres, and consequently did not give rise to row upon row of brick terracing. Architectural fashions also changed so quickly in the nineteenth century that the style of buildings clearly reflects the style at the time of construction and the choice of those who paid for the development. Exeter's freemen built public buildings on classical lines along Queen Street, but the terraced housing in the St David's area exhibits mock-Tudor touches; the Duke of Bedford built a Gothic, castellated Town Hall which adds an air of authority to the centre of Tavistock.
The Grand Western Canal linked Taunton to Tiverton and went no further; Devon's pre-Beeching railways did not open up all areas of the county. One attempt to improve transport was the granite railway at Haytor running to Morwellham Quay, built to give Dartmoor granite access to a wider market. But transport links within the county remained limited and this has contributed to the survival of recognisable local variations, such as slate hanging.
Devon's many markets, with their small market radii (again the result of local transport difficulties), have done much to perpetuate regional variation within the county. Railway connections allowed some local markets to decline while Exeter flourished, but many markets, buying and selling local produce, continued.
COAST
Devon has always had a strong maritime connection, unsurprisingly in view of its two coastlines. An important means of communication for both potential traders and invaders, the sea is also a source of food, minerals and (allegedly) health. This economic importance is reflected culturally in the county, particularly in architecture. St Peter's Church, Tiverton, was largely financed through wealth generated by the seaborne cloth trade, and carvings within the church commemorate this. At the church of St Nectan at Stoke, the Countess Gytha is depicted standing on the shore, reflecting the close local links with the sea.
A successful port requires a thriving and accessible hinterland to maintain its function. The decline of Devon's cloth industry by the mid eighteenth century reduced the county's export capacity and the function of Devon's coastal settlements as ports was therefore becoming less important by the modern period. This continued as overland communications improved. Nevertheless Devon's coastlines still provided important access to the New World, particularly for emigrant labour during the agricultural depressions of the nineteenth century. Devon also continued to foster mariners - Chaucer's shipman and Sir John Hawkins were succeeded by recruits to Dartmouth College. Devon's ports also retained their victualling and repair functions, albeit on a lesser scale.
Fishing and trade can be smelly and noisy, and require immediate access to the sea. Ironically, the sea was of almost marginal importance in the early development of resorts as a modern function of coastal settlements. The forerunners of seaside resorts were spa towns, and if Jane Austen is any guide, for every person who went to take the waters at Bath there were at least three whose primary objective was to socialise, plus assorted servants. Equally so with the Devon resorts: moreover sea bathing being a private affair and the picturesqueness of the sea going unappreciated by Georgian gentility, sight of and rapid access to the sea was not a primary concern. This is reflected in the structure of the early resort towns of Devon, whose focus, unlike that of ports or fishing villages, is towards parades rather than the beach. If smelly, noisy sea-related activities occurred they were kept well away from the social focus of the settlement, and if these activities were too numerous or the site too difficult to access the place did not flourish as a resort. With the advent of railways, bank holidays and ice cream vendors, Devon's resorts became less exclusive and their popularity was fuelled by railway advertising.
The sea has therefore maintained its importance in the economy and culture of the county and this is still evident in the county's imagery - Keep Devon Tidy signs at inland laybys are emblazoned with the County Council's emblem of a sailing ship.
PERIPHERY
Nature has isolated Devon to a great extent with the sea on two sides, and a gap between the hills and the Axe valley the only two connections with mainland Britain. This enhances the role of the sea, which can be accessed by rivers penetrating deep inland in Devon, as a means of communication. Devon is more of a destination than a passing-place, and most travellers from the Romans onwards seem to have halted at Exeter with most of Devon unexplored beyond. Coaching inns and early turnpiking did not reach Devonians until 1753.
Devonians were expertly exploiting their natural resources of tin, wool and granite well before the industrial revolution, so that Defoe could comment happily on the seething industrial activity in the county. The development of steampower in the north of England, however, soon left Devon behind industrially - the county was well endowed for water power but lacking the coal necessary for steam. As industry developed elsewhere, however, Devon's resources were called up once more, which led to, for example, the development of copper mining at Tavistock, the location of Heathcoat's lace factory at the Luddite-free Tiverton and the redevelopment of silver and lead mines at Bere Ferrars. As Victorian urban improvement schemes flourished, so Devon's granite made its way across the country. Devon's phases of industrial activity do not therefore necessarily coincide with those of other parts of England.
Nature may have omitted to supply Devon with coal, but she did supply the south part of the county with bracing sea air, salt water and a mild climate. Consequently the latter part of the eighteenth century saw the beginning of resort development in Devon, fuelling transport improvements and service industries. Initially a response to local demand, and coming later than resorts closer to the social centre of England, the development of resorts helped to create wealth and allowed urban improvements at coastal settlements such as Exmouth, Dawlish and in the county town Exeter, through which all travellers passed. Once again, Devon had been a forerunner in urban improvements with the creation of Northernhay in Exeter in the early seventeenth century; but more extensive urban development was dependent on prosperity and necessity. In Exeter this occurred in the 1830s once transport improvements had improved communications with distant areas (particularly Bath). The subsequent increase in wheeled traffic led to, for example, street widening schemes and the development of Queen Street and Ironbridge Road. The arrival of railways also impacted on Exeter, as the building trade and railway construction became major sources of employment. Some buildings were given a facelift; others were built not of local rock but of newly transportable brick. Local resources therefore initially provided the wealth and sources for urban development; further development came with transport improvements which brought greater movement between parts of Devon and the rest of the country.
Exeter was at the hub of such development; other towns in Devon, not so well connected as the county capital, or with prosperity dependent on a different economic base, developed in different ways at different times. Tavistock, for example, was extensively redeveloped by the seventh Duke of Bedford as the town's local tin and copper mining expanded in the first half of the nineteenth century. Totnes, enriched in the sixteenth century through tin and cloth export, was merely a backwater for the lesser gentry by the nineteenth century, and its layout and housing went undisturbed by Victorian improvers. There was therefore variety in the timing and extent of such development in Devon, depending on local circumstances but influenced by links to other places.
Agriculturally Devon was ahead of the early improvers, farmers being praised for their good husbandry, but by the nineteenth century Devon farmers were viewed as behind the times. Farming practices were largely a response to Devon's climatic and geological conditions, hence for example the breeding of hardy red cattle in the wet and windy Culms area, and the use of sand as a soil improver in the South Hams. Early piecemeal enclosure had also been possible in Devon because of Dartmoor's role as a common grazing area. Modern enclosure was later attempted on Dartmoor, opened up by the turnpike of 1780, at Princetown, without great success; such an isolated and bracing spot, however, made it perfect for prisoners and consumptives from all over England.
Devon's position on the periphery of England has not therefore resulted in its complete isolation from social, economic or political movements; moreover the county played its part in initiating some of them. But "progress" was not uniform throughout the country or throughout the modern period, because the means of change was rooted in the immediate locality.
CONCLUSION
Like most counties, Devon today is doing its best to attract tourists. Interestingly, this seems to be done less by highlighting what the county was, and more by pointing visitors to what it is: busy and bright on the coast, remote and windswept on Dartmoor, for example. There are craft centres and stately homes, and Exeter in particular seems keen to focus on its past, but Devon is largely lacking in the brown heritage signposts ("Ancient Market Town") which are so numerous in the Midlands.
Devon is huge; it has more mileage of roads than any other county; its landscapes are varied; its history is the history of many different settlements. It is therefore impossible to do justice to the county and its people in a work of this length. But the main influences on the character of the county can be discerned: its position on the periphery of England; its maritime connection; and the variety of landscape and resources within the county. These factors, and the effect they have had on the timing and extent of change within the county, have all contributed to make Devon distinctive.
Waterloo commuters know Exeter as the end of the line on the region's longest run; John Cleese made Devon's resort hotels infamous; the Famous Five are among many consumers of Devon cream teas. Other counties may also boast of distance, recreation and rich food, but Devonians, and thousands of annual tourists, will testify to the fact that Devon is a distinctive county. Devon's size contributes to this - only Yorkshire and Lincolnshire are larger. Its size is only partly defined by human boundaries, as it is bordered by the sea to both north and south, never more than 40km away, and within this large area, landscape and human activity can vary considerably
Change has not missed Devon. Shorelines have altered - the gradual silting of the Torridge allowed Bideford to prosper as Barnstaple declined. The medieval bridge over the Exe at Exeter is now high and dry, and the village of Hound Tor on Dartmoor has been deserted for centuries. An inhospitable place to dwell, Dartmoor has always been used for grazing; today's fattening profitmakers, ponies, stand in wet and boggy soil. But the ponies are also standing in a man-made landscape, a remnant of the moor's industrial activity.
Continuity, therefore, is also evident in Devon. Today's magistrates' court is sited within the Norman castle at Exeter, a city which has lost little of its historical importance as a centre of ecclesiastical and political administration. The cathedral and city wall are surrounded by modern buildings; and the quayside is still in use, although the trade there now is connected more with leisure than exports. Continuity of communication routes is an important element in Devon's history - despite the Highways Agency, hollow lanes are still in use and indeed add greatly to the modern Devon travel experience.
VARIETY
The uses to which land can be put are ultimately dependent on the underlying geology, and distinct regions exist within Devon
* the South Hams - gently rolling hills, arable cultivation in fields divided by hedges or hedgebanks.
* Dartmoor - elevated on a plateau of granite, good for building materials but making cultivation very difficult.
* East Devon - ridges and valleys, some arable use of the land but mostly sheep grazing.
Devon's geology has also created considerable barriers to communications within its large area. This has resulted in distinctions probably most visible in architecture, particularly churches, as the more solid the material, the less transportable it was pre-tarmacadam.
The transport developments of the nineteenth century helped to reduce regional variety of building materials throughout the country. Dutch bricks are in evidence in the wealthy merchant houses of Topsham, but these came to the area earlier and by sea; bricks came by rails to build nineteenth century workers' housing in Exeter; Heathcoat's factory housing at Tiverton is brick. Many of the county's towns did not become large manufacturing centres, and consequently did not give rise to row upon row of brick terracing. Architectural fashions also changed so quickly in the nineteenth century that the style of buildings clearly reflects the style at the time of construction and the choice of those who paid for the development. Exeter's freemen built public buildings on classical lines along Queen Street, but the terraced housing in the St David's area exhibits mock-Tudor touches; the Duke of Bedford built a Gothic, castellated Town Hall which adds an air of authority to the centre of Tavistock.
The Grand Western Canal linked Taunton to Tiverton and went no further; Devon's pre-Beeching railways did not open up all areas of the county. One attempt to improve transport was the granite railway at Haytor running to Morwellham Quay, built to give Dartmoor granite access to a wider market. But transport links within the county remained limited and this has contributed to the survival of recognisable local variations, such as slate hanging.
Devon's many markets, with their small market radii (again the result of local transport difficulties), have done much to perpetuate regional variation within the county. Railway connections allowed some local markets to decline while Exeter flourished, but many markets, buying and selling local produce, continued.
COAST
Devon has always had a strong maritime connection, unsurprisingly in view of its two coastlines. An important means of communication for both potential traders and invaders, the sea is also a source of food, minerals and (allegedly) health. This economic importance is reflected culturally in the county, particularly in architecture. St Peter's Church, Tiverton, was largely financed through wealth generated by the seaborne cloth trade, and carvings within the church commemorate this. At the church of St Nectan at Stoke, the Countess Gytha is depicted standing on the shore, reflecting the close local links with the sea.
A successful port requires a thriving and accessible hinterland to maintain its function. The decline of Devon's cloth industry by the mid eighteenth century reduced the county's export capacity and the function of Devon's coastal settlements as ports was therefore becoming less important by the modern period. This continued as overland communications improved. Nevertheless Devon's coastlines still provided important access to the New World, particularly for emigrant labour during the agricultural depressions of the nineteenth century. Devon also continued to foster mariners - Chaucer's shipman and Sir John Hawkins were succeeded by recruits to Dartmouth College. Devon's ports also retained their victualling and repair functions, albeit on a lesser scale.
Fishing and trade can be smelly and noisy, and require immediate access to the sea. Ironically, the sea was of almost marginal importance in the early development of resorts as a modern function of coastal settlements. The forerunners of seaside resorts were spa towns, and if Jane Austen is any guide, for every person who went to take the waters at Bath there were at least three whose primary objective was to socialise, plus assorted servants. Equally so with the Devon resorts: moreover sea bathing being a private affair and the picturesqueness of the sea going unappreciated by Georgian gentility, sight of and rapid access to the sea was not a primary concern. This is reflected in the structure of the early resort towns of Devon, whose focus, unlike that of ports or fishing villages, is towards parades rather than the beach. If smelly, noisy sea-related activities occurred they were kept well away from the social focus of the settlement, and if these activities were too numerous or the site too difficult to access the place did not flourish as a resort. With the advent of railways, bank holidays and ice cream vendors, Devon's resorts became less exclusive and their popularity was fuelled by railway advertising.
The sea has therefore maintained its importance in the economy and culture of the county and this is still evident in the county's imagery - Keep Devon Tidy signs at inland laybys are emblazoned with the County Council's emblem of a sailing ship.
PERIPHERY
Nature has isolated Devon to a great extent with the sea on two sides, and a gap between the hills and the Axe valley the only two connections with mainland Britain. This enhances the role of the sea, which can be accessed by rivers penetrating deep inland in Devon, as a means of communication. Devon is more of a destination than a passing-place, and most travellers from the Romans onwards seem to have halted at Exeter with most of Devon unexplored beyond. Coaching inns and early turnpiking did not reach Devonians until 1753.
Devonians were expertly exploiting their natural resources of tin, wool and granite well before the industrial revolution, so that Defoe could comment happily on the seething industrial activity in the county. The development of steampower in the north of England, however, soon left Devon behind industrially - the county was well endowed for water power but lacking the coal necessary for steam. As industry developed elsewhere, however, Devon's resources were called up once more, which led to, for example, the development of copper mining at Tavistock, the location of Heathcoat's lace factory at the Luddite-free Tiverton and the redevelopment of silver and lead mines at Bere Ferrars. As Victorian urban improvement schemes flourished, so Devon's granite made its way across the country. Devon's phases of industrial activity do not therefore necessarily coincide with those of other parts of England.
Nature may have omitted to supply Devon with coal, but she did supply the south part of the county with bracing sea air, salt water and a mild climate. Consequently the latter part of the eighteenth century saw the beginning of resort development in Devon, fuelling transport improvements and service industries. Initially a response to local demand, and coming later than resorts closer to the social centre of England, the development of resorts helped to create wealth and allowed urban improvements at coastal settlements such as Exmouth, Dawlish and in the county town Exeter, through which all travellers passed. Once again, Devon had been a forerunner in urban improvements with the creation of Northernhay in Exeter in the early seventeenth century; but more extensive urban development was dependent on prosperity and necessity. In Exeter this occurred in the 1830s once transport improvements had improved communications with distant areas (particularly Bath). The subsequent increase in wheeled traffic led to, for example, street widening schemes and the development of Queen Street and Ironbridge Road. The arrival of railways also impacted on Exeter, as the building trade and railway construction became major sources of employment. Some buildings were given a facelift; others were built not of local rock but of newly transportable brick. Local resources therefore initially provided the wealth and sources for urban development; further development came with transport improvements which brought greater movement between parts of Devon and the rest of the country.
Exeter was at the hub of such development; other towns in Devon, not so well connected as the county capital, or with prosperity dependent on a different economic base, developed in different ways at different times. Tavistock, for example, was extensively redeveloped by the seventh Duke of Bedford as the town's local tin and copper mining expanded in the first half of the nineteenth century. Totnes, enriched in the sixteenth century through tin and cloth export, was merely a backwater for the lesser gentry by the nineteenth century, and its layout and housing went undisturbed by Victorian improvers. There was therefore variety in the timing and extent of such development in Devon, depending on local circumstances but influenced by links to other places.
Agriculturally Devon was ahead of the early improvers, farmers being praised for their good husbandry, but by the nineteenth century Devon farmers were viewed as behind the times. Farming practices were largely a response to Devon's climatic and geological conditions, hence for example the breeding of hardy red cattle in the wet and windy Culms area, and the use of sand as a soil improver in the South Hams. Early piecemeal enclosure had also been possible in Devon because of Dartmoor's role as a common grazing area. Modern enclosure was later attempted on Dartmoor, opened up by the turnpike of 1780, at Princetown, without great success; such an isolated and bracing spot, however, made it perfect for prisoners and consumptives from all over England.
Devon's position on the periphery of England has not therefore resulted in its complete isolation from social, economic or political movements; moreover the county played its part in initiating some of them. But "progress" was not uniform throughout the country or throughout the modern period, because the means of change was rooted in the immediate locality.
CONCLUSION
Like most counties, Devon today is doing its best to attract tourists. Interestingly, this seems to be done less by highlighting what the county was, and more by pointing visitors to what it is: busy and bright on the coast, remote and windswept on Dartmoor, for example. There are craft centres and stately homes, and Exeter in particular seems keen to focus on its past, but Devon is largely lacking in the brown heritage signposts ("Ancient Market Town") which are so numerous in the Midlands.
Devon is huge; it has more mileage of roads than any other county; its landscapes are varied; its history is the history of many different settlements. It is therefore impossible to do justice to the county and its people in a work of this length. But the main influences on the character of the county can be discerned: its position on the periphery of England; its maritime connection; and the variety of landscape and resources within the county. These factors, and the effect they have had on the timing and extent of change within the county, have all contributed to make Devon distinctive.
