Thorverton
Thorverton is a civil parish and village in Devon, England, about a mile west of the River Exe and north of Exeter. It is almost centrally located between Exeter and the towns of Tiverton, Cullompton and Crediton, and contains the hamlets of Yellowford and Raddon. The parish is surrounded, clockwise from the north, by the parishes of Bickleigh, Rewe, Nether Exe, Brampford Speke, Upton Pyne, Shobrooke, Stockleigh Pomeroy and Cadbury. Most of the eastern boundary of the parish is formed by the River Exe and the land rises westwards to at the border with Cadbury.
The population of the parish was 674 as of the 2011 Census. Thorverton is a major part of the Cadbury electoral ward. The population of this ward at the 2011 Census was 1,602.
Thorverton has two churches and two public houses. The Millennium Green provides walking alongside the stream which runs through the centre of the village. The Memorial Hall provides a centre for entertainment, with a monthly Saturday Market for local produce. A local village magazine, Focus on Thorverton, is produced by volunteers.
History
Early history
The name of Thorverton derives from the Anglo-Scandinavian personal name Thurferth with the Old English tun, meaning 'estate'. Documentary evidence for old names for the settlement include Torverton from 1182 to the 13th century; Thorverton from 1263; and Thurfurton in 1340.There was briefly a small settlement here during Roman times, perched on a hill overlooking a fording point across the River Exe, a key crossing for the military garrisoned at Exeter.
There is no mention of Thorverton in the Domesday Book, though Thorn and Thorn note that it would have been part of the large manor of Silverton and was given to the monastery of Marmoutier at Tours by either King Henry III or by William the Conqueror himself. However, Raddon, now known as Raddon Court, west of Thorverton, is mentioned in the Domesday book. It was held by William the usher from Tavistock Abbey.
Thorverton Mill was running at this time on the River Exe,.
At the centre of the village is a wide rectangle known as The Bury, which probably dates from Anglo-Saxon times when it was used as a refuge for cattle at times of crisis. It later became the site for sheep and cattle fairs and markets which continued until around 1900.
The Civil War
During the Civil War, Thorverton, as the location of a major crossing, was often on the front line. In 1644 the Parliamentarians under the Earl of Essex were besieging Royalist Exeter. Some of the Roundhead troops marched into Thorverton, destroyed a large stock of oats, damaged possessions of the Church and took money from the parson and Mr Tuckfield at Raddon Court. Parson Travers and Mr Tuckfield were known loyalists and were therefore targeted for rough treatment.The Roundheads moved off into Cornwall and subsequent defeat, leaving Thorverton in Royalist control with a military presence. A line against attack from the Midlands was formed between Eggesford and Cullompton, with Thorverton the bridgehead and the headquarters of General Goring along with several thousand troops.
It was to Thorverton that the 15-year-old Prince of Wales came out from the walled city of Exeter to review his troops. The force retreated in the face of Fairfax and his Roundheads however in October 1645. Fairfax and a seemingly endless line of Parliamentary infantrymen moved through Thorverton on the way to Newton St Cyres and Crediton. Across the bridge, up Silver Street, past the Dolphin and out past Bullen Head.
Parliamentary troops were then stationed in Thorverton whilst Exeter was besieged for the second time and fell in April 1646. Following that all military activity left Thorverton in peace.
The Second World War
During the Second World War, Thorverton was used as a billet for American artillery troops prior to D-Day. 'A' Battery, 953rd Field Artillery Battalion lived within the village between November 1943 and Spring 1944. 'B' Battery stayed in Silverton. During this time they prepared for the D-Day invasion using firing ranges on Dartmoor.The 953rd set sail on D-Day + 3 and landed at the Normandy beaches on D-Day +5. They were heavily involved in repulsing the German counter-offensive at the Battle of the Bulge in winter 1944/45.
A memorial plaque to the 953rd's stay in Thorverton can be found in the Millennium Green. The plaque was presented to the village in 2002 by a former officer of the 953rd and dedicated to the memory of Suzanne Easterbrook, who died in that year, "and other fine people of Thorverton who were so welcoming to the young American soldiers".
Geology
Thorverton, located on clay and sand, has a subsoil of red rock, which gives the fertile earth its distinctive red colouring. The area is rich in rare and unusual rocks and minerals. Manganese has been found near Upton Pyne, and small quantities of gold in local streams. An igneous rock has been quarried at Raddon since the 12th century and the bubbled rock can be seen in numerous examples of local stonework.Agriculture, fairs and the community
Agriculture was the main activity associated with the village, and there are many ancient farmhouses within the parish. Raddon Court was a Saxon estate. Upcott farm, Bidwell farm and Lynch farm have also been there for many years. Traymill, to the north of the parish on the Exe, was built about 1400 and has traceried windows, arched doorways and still retains the original hall roof.The fertile red soil produced excellent wheat, barley and apples, which were the main crops. An orchard covered the rear grounds behind the cottages on the south side of Bullen Street. A few apple trees remain. Thorverton was also once well known locally for its apricots.
There were two main fairs held in the parish each year, which were customary holidays for the scholars at the National School. One took place on the last Monday in February, chiefly for "fat sheep", and the second on the Monday following 18 July for lambs - at which upwards of 40,000 were frequently sold for rearing. There was a monthly cattle fair and Thorverton was noted for its excellent breed of sheep. The fairs have since ceased, but in their place the village still enjoys annual festivities during the summer with Church Week and the Country Show.
Thorverton was once a thriving, self-sufficient community. In 1850, there were four bakers, three blacksmiths in the cottages along Bullen Street. One of the blacksmiths also covered any dentistry requirements. There were three butchers, one of which was located at the prominent stilted building in the centre of the village next to the green, built in 1763 in the local style of the time. Four grocers, two saddlers, two shoemakers, four tailors - one of which lived in Dinneford Street - two wheelwrights, and two plumbers. Also a builder, corn miller, apple nurseryman and a maltster.
In addition to these trades, Thorverton had a parson and a curate, a surgeon, a solicitor, an accountant, an auctioneer, and a veterinary surgeon. For rural services there was a builder, a corn-miller, an apple-nurseryman, an agricultural machine-maker, a maltster, and a druggist.
The Bury was lined with shops, now almost all converted to private homes, the broad windows of which still speak of a prosperous recent past. The last shop - known as 'The Dairy' closed in 2006. For ten years, the needs of the village were served by a second hand mobile ex-library vehicle situated in the car park which was driven up and down the road outside the Thorverton Arms until a permanent place at the village car park was agreed. In 2016 Berry Dairy General Stores was re-established in the original Dairy in the centre of the village.
The business of the Post Office is conducted from a portable cabin within the village car park. The original Post Office, now a private home in the centre of the village on the corner of Bullen Street and School Lane, was run by three generations of the Cummings family from 1870 to 1994, commemorated today by a blue plaque.
The car park itself was created on the site of a former quarry.
A channelled stream, which drains the Raddon Hills to the north and runs to the River Exe, winds through the village, characteristic of several East Devon villages. A pedestrian bridge and ford cross the stream at Silver Street.
There was a second ford across the stream beside Abbotsford which allowed passage to the old vicarage, which was sited between Garden Cottage and Mar Lodge. This village feature has now, unfortunately, disappeared, following embankment by the properties on either side of it.
The village green at the bottom of Jericho Street once hosted a large fir tree - planted by 10-year-old Mary Norrish of Raddon Court Barton at the time of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887. Its lop-sidedness is prominent in many of the old photographs of Thorverton. The tree eventually became too big and was taken down in 1947 for the price of the wood contained within it. Every December a Christmas tree, decorated with lights, is placed on the same spot as the old Jubilee tree.
Cobbled streets have been preserved throughout the centre of the village, as has an elaborate system of watercourses established in the 1850s; the idea of the Rector's daughter following a serious outbreak of cholera.
Bridges
Thorverton's population was once much larger as the village rested near the primary means for crossing the River Exe on the main road from London towards Cornwall. It remained so until the mid-18th century. Further to this, the bridge stands on the site of an ancient fordable crossing point and accounts for the main reason the village came into existence.The bridge currently spanning the River Exe is a modern concrete construction, but it is the successor to several earlier bridges. The first bridge, constructed of timber, was placed here in 1307. The timber bridge was replaced with a stone one in 1415 thanks to a donation of £10 by Thomas Barton of Exeter.
The quarry at the site of the Council Car Park was used in 1811 to provide stone for the new Thorverton bridge, to be built by county surveyor, James Green. The bridge was completed within two years, but Green complained that he had lost £1200 in building it because of issues with the quarry. Quarry owner, John Niner of the Barliabins estate, received payment for the stone as well as compensation for the damage done to his land. Green's bridge lasted until 1912, when the current bridge was constructed to take heavier traffic.
A 32-metre weir was constructed across the river here in 1973 due to the unstable condition of the riverbed. A monitoring station was put in place here by the Rivers Authority in 1956 for the purpose of flood warning monitoring in advance of Exeter. The Environment Agency has since installed here which can be viewed by the public online.