Plympton

Plympton
Devon
Plympton town from the castle
Location
Grid reference:	SX542561
Location:	50°23’10"N, 4°3’4"W
Data
Population:	29,899  (2011)
Post town:	Plymouth
Postcode:	PL7
Dialling code:	01752
Local Government
Council:	Plymouth
Parliamentary constituency:	South West Devon

Plympton is a town in south-western Devon, adjacent to the City of Plymouth of which it has effectively become a residential suburb. It stands to the north-east of the city. Along with Plymstock, it was absorbed by the city's civic boundary in 1967.

Plympton has a long, independent history. It was an ancient stannary town: an important trading centre in the past for locally mined tin, and a seaport before the River Plym silted up and trade moved down the river to Plymouth.

The town still has its own town centre (called 'the Ridgeway'), and is itself an amalgamation of several villages, including St Mary's, St Maurice, Colebrook, Woodford, Newnham, Langage and Chaddlewood.

Name

The name of Plympton is sometimes aggrandised and seen as 'Plympton Maurice', Plympton St Maurice', 'Plympton St Mary' or 'Plympton Erle'.

Close by Plympton are Plymstock and Plymouth, and though these names appear to be derived their its location on the River Plym, this is not considered to be the case. As J. Brooking Rowe pointed out in 1906, Plympton is not, and never was, sited on the river. It may be however that the river is named from the town. The earliest surviving documentary reference to the place is as Plymentun in Anglo-Saxon charter S380 dated to around 900 AD, and this name appears to be from the Old English adjective plymen, meaning "growing with plum-trees": Plymetun means "Plum-tree village". The local civic association suggests an alternative derivation from the Celtic Pen-lyn-dun ("fort at the head of a creek"). Alternatively, Cornish derivations also give ploumenn meaning 'plum' and plo(b)m meaning 'lead' or 'tin'.

By the early 13th century, the River Plym was named from a back-formation from this name and nearby Plymstock. When the river estuary silted up too much for the monks to sail upriver to Plympton, the fishing port at the river's mouth, Sutton, grew as a port and became 'Plymouth'.

History

Near Plympton is the Iron Age hill fort of Boringdon Camp.

Domesday Book

Plympton is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as follows:

”The King holds Plympton. TRE it paid geld for two and a half hides. There is land for 20 ploughs. In demesne are two ploughs and six slaves and 5 villeins and 12 bordars with 12 ploughs. There are six acres of meadow and 20 acres of pasture, woodland one league long and a half broad. It renders £13 10s by weight. Beside this land the canons of the same manor hold 2 hides. There is land for 6 ploughs. There 12 v have 4 ploughs. It is worth 35 shillings.

Plympton Priory

Plympton was the site of an important priory founded by William Warelwast in the early 12th century. The members were Augustinian canons and the priory soon became the richest monastic house in Devon after Tavistock. The gatehouse of the priory is still in existence. In 1872 it was recorded that the gatehouse, kitchen and refectory were still in good condition.

Plympton Castle

Plympton Castle

Richard de Redvers (d.1107) was granted the feudal barony of Plympton, with caput at Plympton Castle, by King Henry I (1100-1135), of which king he was a most trusted supporter. His family later became Earls of Devon. Their lands, including Plympton, and titles were later inherited by the Courtenay family, feudal barons of Okehampton. The ancient Stannary town remains dominated by its Norman motte-and-bailey castle, though it now stands in ruins, and it still retains a cohesive mediæval street pattern. A number of historic buildings in the local vernacular style of green Devon slate, limestone and lime-washed walls, with Dartmoor granite detailing, attest to all periods of its history.

Rotten Borough

The town was formerly a parliamentary borough, by the name of ‘Plympton Erle’, and returned two members to the House of Commons. The Reform Act 1832 stripped it of its representation.

Birthplace of Joshua Reynolds

Sir Joshua Reynolds

The town was the birthplace and early residence of the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds. Reynolds was Mayor of Plympton, as well as first president of the Royal Academy of Art. His father was headmaster of Plympton Grammar School which itself is an attractive historic building still standing in the centre of the town. Former pupils included Benjamin Haydon and Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, PRA, who were respectively first director of the National Gallery and first president of the Royal Photographic Society.

Many of Reynold's paintings were purchased by his friends the Parker family of local Saltram House, now owned by the National Trust, and are still on public display there.

Railway

Railway facilities were originally provided at Plympton, for goods traffic only, by the horse-drawn Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway, but their branch was closed and sold to the South Devon Railway to allow them to build a line from Exeter to Plymouth. Plympton station was opened in the town on 15 June 1848. From 1 June 1904 it was the eastern terminus for enhanced Plymouth area suburban services but it was closed from 3 March 1959.

Plymouth City Council has stated it would like to see a rail station reopened on the London main line running through the middle of Plympton, which would provide quick and frequent trains into Plymouth. There are though major obstacles to providing such a service on a primarily inter-regional rail route, as shown when Ivybridge, on the same line, got a new station in 1994.

Plym Valley Railway

The Plym Valley Railway is a preserved railway based at the reconstructed Marsh Mills station on Coypool Road. This was formerly part of the GWR Plymouth to Launceston branch line. The volunteer-run PVR is actively rebuilding the line between Marsh Mills and Plymbridge. Steam and diesel heritage trains run on numerous Sundays throughout the year.

Churches

• St Maurice: of Norman origin. The only remarkable feature is the tower which was rebuilt in the middle of the 15th century.
• St Mary: dedicated in 1311 and was originally a parish chapel attached to Plympton Priory and is a church of more importance. The lofty tower is of granite ashlar and visible from afar.

The town today

Between about 1990 and 2010, Plympton has seen considerable growth as the suburban population of Plymouth has doubled. To help manage this rapid growth more efficiently, Plympton has been separated into a series of separate districts: Yealmpstone, Plympton-St Maurice, Colebrook, Underwood, Woodford and Chaddlewood.

New Town proposal

A new town to be called Sherford has been proposed to be built adjacent to Plympton. This development is expected to consist of "at least 4,000 dwellings by 2016".

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Plympton)

• Plympton at the Open Directory Project
• The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History – Plympton Priory