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Summary

Tiverton, identified as Tovretone in the Domesday survey, was one of the manors which constituted the estate of the Earls of Devon in the 13th and 14th centuries. It was one of the royal possessions mentioned in King Alfred's will in the late 9th century.

Location

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument 1003835: Tiverton Castle (uninhabited buildings)
• Scheduled Monument 1003835: Tiverton Castle (uninhabited buildings)

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SS91SE/29/5

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• MANOR (VIII to Late Medieval - 701 AD to 1539 AD (Between))

Full description

Worth, R. N., 1893, The Identifications of the Domesday Manors of Devon, 339 (Article in Serial). SDV21436.

The manor of Tiverton identified as Tovretone in the Domesday survey.

Anonymous, 1927, Proceedings of the Congress of the British Archaeological Association at Exeter, 27 (Article in Serial). SDV35433.

After the death of the 12th Earl of Devon in 1566, the manor was broken up.

Reichel, O. J., 1928 - 1938, The Hundred of Plympton in Early Times, 279 (Article in Monograph). SDV161480.

Mentioned in passing by Reichel in Plympton Hundred.

Reichel, O. J., 1928 - 1938, The Hundred of Tiverton in Early Times (Article in Monograph). SDV35420.

The king's manor at Domesday formerly held by Countess Githa. It was worth 18 pounds sterling at that time - equal to Exeter. The descents of the manor are given in detail up to 1556. The royal estate in the 12th century included the castle and borough, two parks, two mills and much of the parish of Tiverton.

Hoskins, W. G., 1954, A New Survey of England: Devon, 495 (Monograph). SDV17562.

It was founded early in the Saxon settlement and was a royal estate from the beginning. Henry I gave the large and valuable manor to Richard de Redvers, the father of Baldwin, in 1106.

Ugawa, K., 1962, The Economic Development of some Devon Manors in the Thirteenth Century, 630-383 (Article in Serial). SDV340690.

Tiverton was only one of the manors which constituted the estate of the Earls of Devon in the 13th and 14th centuries. The others were Barton, or Little Tiverton on the West Exe, Plympton, Exminster, and Topsham. A picture of the economic structure and local characteristics of the manors is given and of the way in which these changed at the end of the 13th century. Tiverton is noted for having, for example, an unusual number of mills. The contraction of demesne farming on the estate as a whole is discussed. Comparisons in tabulated form are made with manors in other parts of the country.

Youngs, J., 1967, King James's Charter to Tiverton, 1615, 148,149,150,152,156 (Article in Serial). SDV349433.

In about 1200, a part of the manor of Tiverton was designated as a borough. In 1257, a royal grant was given to hold a market in Tiverton manor.

Timms, S. C., 1976, The Devon Urban Survey, 1976. First Draft, 195, 202 (Report - Survey). SDV341346.

Twyfyrde was one of the royal possessions bequeathed by King Alfred to his son Edward. The location of the Saxon settlement cannot be identified exactly but was probably either above the fording point that gave the settlement its name or in the vicinity of the church which is known to predate the foundation of the town. The manor remained in royal hands until the beginning of the 12th century when it was granted to Richard de Redvers. On the death of Isabella de fortibus in 1293 the manor passed to the Courtenay family who set up their principal residence at Tiverton. The manor property began to be dispersed in 1554 on the death of Edward Courtenay and in 1615 the town gained its charter of incorporation from James I.

Laithwaite, M., 1987, Report on the Tiverton Castle Project 1987, 2-6 (Un-published). SDV35428.

Laithwaite gives descents.

Exeter Archaeology, 2001, Archaeological Assessment of Proposed Development at Cowley Moor, Tiverton, 2 (Report - Assessment). SDV350629.

In his will of circa 880-5, King Alfred bequeathed Tiverton to his younger son, Etheiward. Tiverton is referred to as Twyfyrde, i.e. 'double ford', the place being reached by fords over the rivers Exe and Lowman. Its status as a royal manor is therefore firmly established and the Anglo-Saxon settlement may have been founded as early as circa 650, possibly in the wake of some form of Roman occupation. There are no other known references to Tiverton dating from the period before the Conquest, although its manorial history from 1086 onwards is well documented. From the 10th century onwards it gave its name to the administrative division, the hundred, and as the centre of a royal estate there is also the possibility that Tiverton provided an ecclesiastical focus.
Domesday Book states that 'Tovretone' was held by Gytha, mother of Earl Harold, prior to 1066.' It was assessed at 31/2 hides, worth £18, thus appearing to be more extensive than the later medieval hundred. The royal manor had land sufficient for 36 ploughs, and there is also reference to two (corn) mills, which paid 66 pence. It was bounded to the north by much smaller manors such as Bolham, Chevithorne, Chettiscombe and Craze Lowman, which were to be included in the very large ecclesiastical parish. The area immediately outside the town centre was known as All Fours Portion (conceivably because it comprised four detached areas), while the remaining rural area was divided into four districts or portions (Pitt, Clare, Tidcombe and Cove or Priory). These were irregularly shaped, sometimes intermingled, and appear to derive from early property boundaries.
In the medieval period Tiverton continued as an important administrative and commercial focus for the surrounding district, and indeed the county. Early in the 12th century Richard de Redvers, Earl of Devon, built a castle next to the church on a site no doubt previously occupied by the royal manorial buildings. A borough was founded at Tiverton by the 5th Earl of Devon some time between 1193 and 1217. There is also evidence for a market and fair from at least the mid 13th century, as evidenced by a grant in 1257 to a Baldwin de Insula, possibly the confirmation of an already existing right. In 1293 the manor came into the hands of the Courtenays, remaining so until the mid 16th century.
The estate included two deer parks, referred to as 'great parks, containing between them 1,600 acres'. One of them, extending over some 600 acres, was at Ashley, to the south-west of the castle, where it was bounded on the east by the River Exe. The site of the second remains unclear, and it was variously called Home Park, Castle Barton, Guddesber and Nueparke. The first name suggests that it was close to the castle while the last name, dating from around 1539, implies that there had been a change of location. One authority claimed that the second park stretched from the River Exe to the boundary with Chettiscombe Manor, which would include the site under investigation. Both parks are said to have been disparked when the Courtenay lands were forfeited to Henry VIII in 1539, although when Christopher Saxton mapped the county in the 1570s he still showed the park at Ashley.
During the 16th century, the woollen industry was regenerated due to the manufacture of cheap, rough cloths known as kerseys. The earliest reference to a 'fulling' mill in Tiverton occurs in 1226, and the town with its two rivers (and the main town leat) was well placed to finish cloth for the market. The growing wealth and importance of the town resulted in it becoming, in 1615, one of the thirteen Devon towns incorporated as municipal boroughs. Unfortunately few buildings of this period survive today because the town was subject to frequent destructive fires.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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