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Summary

Site of a short-lived small canal wharf (1804-1816), used by Gill & Company. No buildings known; the wharf was simply a walled yard adjacent to the canal. Replaced by the Tavistock Wharf to the south-west from around 1816.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1020401: Tavistock Abbey

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• CANAL WHARF (Constructed, XIX - 1803 AD to 1805 AD (Between))

Full description

Waterhouse, R., 2017, The Tavistock Canal. Its History and Archaeology, 383-85, fig 11.1 (Monograph). SDV361789.

Abbey Wharf was intended by the Bedford Estate from the start of the canal's construction in 1803 to be Gill & Company's wharf, and was used by them for their trade on the part-finished canal between 1805-1816. The Tithe Map confusingly shows it on both sides id the main basin where the public wharf was sited from 1803 and where Gill & Company built their wharf in 1816-18. However, a plan in the Bedford Papers (undated, but likely c.1803-1815) shows it was on the right bank of the canal, just downstream of the intake sluice at Abbey Weir in Tavistock town centre.
John Gill argued with the Bedford Estate in 1815-17 that the wharf was too small, the argument was heated and eventually Abbey Wharf was abandoned and the Gills established Tavistock Wharf (MDV43882) to the south-west. No buildings are known to have existed at Abbey Wharf, which was simply a walled yard beside the canal. Confined by surrounding buildings, it could not be enlarged and it was inconveniently located on a bend in the canal channel. After 1816 it declined, and by the time of the Tithe Map appears to have been forgotten completely.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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