Chudleigh History Group
The Chudleigh History Group was formed in 2002. It now has a membership exceeding 150, and takes a very active interest in any matters relating to the preservation or investigation of the fabric of the community, and constantly monitors any proposed changes or rearrangements affecting the town.
The History Group led the successful ‘Save Our Twin Oaks’ campaign in 2005 and was in the forefront of the conservation of the Town Mills Leat in 2004. An exhibition of Chudleigh’s past was staged in 2003, and a local ‘Big Dig’ was organised the following year.
The Group has supported a significant investigation taking place at The Bishop’s Palace, and in 2007 wrote and published a book which was distributed to the local schoolchildren to commemorate the Great Fire of Chudleigh in 1807. The commemoration culminated in the building of a replica of the town centre which was then ceremoniously burned down, despite appalling weather conditions on the day.
In the year 2009 we marked the 700th anniversary of the granting of the Town Charter to Chudleigh by staging a Medieval weekend which included a Medieval Banquet for 150 local residents dressed in period costume. Coinciding with this event was the launch of our 413 page hardback The Chudleigh Book, click here for more details.
May 2010 saw the opening of the Heritage Room that shares space with the new Chudleigh Tourist Information Centre. For more information on this exciting project click here.
A brand new, enlarged, revised and updated walking-trail leaflet produced by the CHG, describing 46 places of interest in the town is now available free of charge from the Heritage Room, the Information Centre and other local outlets. Thanks go to our local advertisers who helped make this leaflet a reality.
The year 2012 will see the CHG revive an ancient custom, that of Beating the Bounds, otherwise known as a Perambulation of the Boundaries. Taking place once every seven years - to ensure neighbouring parishes have not encroached where they should not have done - this circular clockwise walk of the whole parish boundary of some 22 miles will likely take place in the early autumn of 2012. click here to go to the Parish Boundaries page.
The History Group usually meet once per month, normally on the first Friday and held in either the large hall or the Woodway Room, both within the Town Hall complex. Starting at 7:30pm the usual format is to have a guest speaker click here to get a flavour of what is on offer this year. Talks usually last for 45 minutes to one hour and are followed by complimentary refreshments. The evening is usually concluded by 9:30pm. Other daytime events are also organised in the summer months and the detail of these may also be found on the events page.
If you would like to join our thriving group then please get in touch, click here to go to the Contact page.
For those of you not local to the town but who may have had ancestors here you may be interested to learn that the CHG has been busy transcribing the monumental inscriptions in the town. We have currently completed those gravestones at the old Baptist Chapel site, the old Congregational Chapel site, the gravestones in the churchyard and all the memorials within the church. Details of the inscriptions of the former two places can be found on the Chapels page of this site and those for the church on our sister site, Chudleigh Parish Church. The names of those lost in the two world wars are also listed on this site, click here for that information. CHG members are now working on the cremation plaques in the churchyard and will soon carry out a review of the cemetery records held by the Town Council.
Historical Overview
Few towns can have the diverse history of Chudleigh. Prehistoric remains found in the caves at the Rock are evidence of Stone Age man. Overlooking the town to the east is an Iron Age hillfort, 1500BC - 400AD, which would have been inhabited by people we now refer to as Celts. The origin of the town itself is Saxon. Some of our place and farm names are of this origin; a Saxon church probably existed on the site of the present church which was dedicated on 6 November 1259.
Following the Norman conquest and the country being under Norman rule the town grew in importance and by the 11th century the Manor of Chudleigh was in the ownership of the See of Exeter. Bishop Osbern is recorded as responsible for the building of a large rural palace in Chudleigh (a few remains of which can still be seen at the bottom of Rock Road). In 1309 Bishop Walter Stapledon was granted a charter by King Edward II allowing a weekly market and annual fair to be held. Until the Reformation the town was overseen by the church but during the 16th century ownership passed into lay control. The town continued to grow in importance due to its participation in the woollen trade. During the civil war it played host to both Royalists and Parliamentarians.
On 22 May 1807 the greatest disaster in the history of our town - known ever since as The Great Fire of Chudleigh - saw two thirds of the town centre burned down and 1200 people made homeless because of it. The then Lord Clifford of Ugbrooke, headed the relief committee which saw the town rebuilt within two years.
The Industrial Revolution heralded the demise of the woollen industry by the 1820s but the long established coaching trade kept Chudleigh alive. Being on the main coaching route between Exeter and Plymouth several ale houses and post houses along with all the ancillary businesses were supported by that service. The railway saw to the demise of the coaching era and the last mail coach through the town coincided with the railway coming to Newton Abbot in 1846. The Teign Valley Line - Newton Abbot to Exeter via Chudleigh - opened in 1882 and closed in 1958. In the 1950s and 1960s the town suffered severe disruption on summer weekends through increased holiday traffic along the A38, which then passed through the town. On the opening of the A38 bypass in 1973 the town regained some normality and became a close community again.
Over the past fifty years the population has doubled and Chudleigh is now a very desirable place to live being so close to the A38 trunk road, the M5 motorway, the cities of Exeter and Plymouth and the three Torbay towns. For those seeking recreational facilities the town is also well placed, with Haldon, Dartmoor, the South Hams and a number of beaches all within easy striking distance.
The History Group Logo
The History Group logo is in the form of a shield and is a representation of four coats of arms belonging to families once influential in the parish, the families were:
Top Left: Pynsent - Top Right: Inglett
Bottom Left: Eastchurch - Bottom Right: Wychalse
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