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Summary

Woolborough Street appears to have been laid out as a new street with burgage plots from the later 13th century. Excavations have demonstrated well the stages by which the street frontage has developed over a period of some 600 years.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II*) 1256725: ST LEONARDS TOWER
• Listed Building (II*) 1256725: ST LEONARDS TOWER
• Listed Building (II) 1256726: BASE OF OLD MARKET CROSS APPROXIMATELY 8 METRES NORTH EAST OF ST LEONARDS TOWER
• Listed Building (II) 1256727: TWO CANNONS APPROXIMATELY ONE METRE TO THE NORTH EAST OF ST LEONARDS TOWER
• Listed Building (II) 1256727: TWO CANNONS APPROXIMATELY ONE METRE TO THE NORTH EAST OF ST LEONARDS TOWER
• Listed Building (II) 1256726: BASE OF OLD MARKET CROSS APPROXIMATELY 8 METRES NORTH EAST OF ST LEONARDS TOWER

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX87SE/326

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• ROAD (Built, XIII - 1201 AD to 1300 AD (Between))

Full description

Unknown, 1983, Wolborough Street Excavations, Newton Abbot, 1983 (Leaflet). SDV359071.

Buildings ranging in date from the 17th to 19th century, on the site of a by-pass being built to link Newfoundland Way and Highweek Street, were recorded prior to their demolition in 1983. In addition the walls and floor levels of successive buildings have been excavated to expose the remains of the earliest houses to have stood on the site, some of which date to the 13th century. At the east end of the site are the wall footings and floor levels of a single storey cob-built structure dating to the 13th-14th century while at the other end of the site is a well-preserved house with substantial stone foundations which was built in the later 14th or 15th century. It was probably also single storied and built it cob. It had two rooms with a through passage between them. A deed of 1477 describes the partition of the house and from that date there were always two properties on the site, latterly 44-46 Wolborough Street.

Weddell, P. J. + Henderson, C. G., 1985, Excavations at Wolborough Street, Newton Abbot, 1983, 45-48 (Article in Serial). SDV354909.

Building recording and excavation undertaken in 1983 prior to the construction of the link road between Wolborough Street and Highweek Street demonstrated well the stages by which the street frontage developed over a period of 600 years. Wolborough Street contained the market place for the medieval borough of Newton Abbot. The street widens out towards its east end being 24 metres wide at its junction with Bank Street and East Street. The excavation occupied a 50 metre length of the northern frontage at its western end, 90 metres from the head of Wolborough Street. The narow burgage plots here extended up to 85 metres back from the street frontage to Back Lane. The earliest pottery recovered from the site dates to the later 13th century, at least 50 years after the foundation of the borough. It is possible that the earliest burgage plots were laid out on the main Exeter to Totnes road with the Wolborough Street tenements only being created from 1269 when a market and fair were granted. Furthermore these early plots may have been confined to the eastern end of the market place; a theory that future excavation may prove.
On the excavation site, the earliest building encountered was the fragmentary remains of a late 13th century dwelling set parallel to the street. The area to the west of the building appears to have been open ground in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. The edge of the street here was defined by a deep ditch. In the late 14th/early 15th century a substantial house was erected on the west end of the site with two rooms separated by a cross passage. In the middle of the principle room to the west of the passage was a stone hearth and against the west wall was a stone bench. A stone base served by a drain against the passage wall may mark the position of a water basin. The 13th century building at the eastern end of the area was suceeded by another building in the 15th century.
The oldest standing building on the site was No. 40 which was built in the early 18th century. The site had been used for iron smithing in the 16th century. A cobbled carriageway was cut through the western end of the house in the early 19th century to give access to buildings at the rear of the tenement. Back courts containing numerous small dwellings were apparently constructed in many tenements in Newton Abbot from around 1800. Those on Wolborough Street, as in other parts of the town, were demolished without record earlier in the 20th century. Numbers 34-36 were rebuilt as a single tenement in the late 18th or early 19th century and substantially remodelled in the 1930s. At the western end of the site the 15th century house on the site of Nos 44-36 had been subdivided into two small tenements by the mid 17th century. No. 46 was rebuilt in the late 18th century while 42 and 44 were demolished and replaced by a pair of houses in the 19th century.

Weddell, P. J., 1985, The Excavation of Medieval and Later Houses at Wolborough Street, Newton Abbot, 77-103 (Article in Serial). SDV338225.

Wolborough Street appears to have been laid out as a new street on which burgage plots were set out, presumably on a virgin site. These plots were probably defined on the north side by back road and the River Lemon, ranging in length from 60 metres to a possible maximum of circa 100 metres. The original width of the plots is not clear since most were later subdivided. On the south side of Wolborough Street there is no obvious boundary, with narrow strips of land on average about 10 metres wide running back some 190 metres from the street. The market place appears to have been at the east end of Wolborough Street which becomes much wider here; the market partly occupied the middle of the road. There were certainly buildings in the middle of the street by 1684 when Gilbert Yarde built a covered butchers' market there; a description of 1803 says that Wolborough Street was obstructed by an old market house and shambles.

Exeter Archaeology, 2001, Archaeological Assessment of Proposed Redevelopment at Wolborough Street, Newton Abbot, 4 (Report - Assessment). SDV310051.

The street, which contained the market place, widens out towards its east end, reaching a width of 24 metres at its junction with Bank and East Streets. Courtenay Street wasn't built until the 19th century. St Leonards Chapel is first documented in 1350 but may well date from the 13th century. Only the tower still stands. The nave was demolished in the 19th century together with the Market House and butcher's shambles to its west.
The earliest building found during excavations in the 1980s comprised the remains of a late 13th century dwelling. The earliest pottery recovered was also late 13th century in date. The whole street frontage appears to have been built up by the later 16th century and by the mid 17th century rear extensions were being added. By the beginning of the 19th century, back courts with small terraces of poor cottages and industrial workshops were appearing.

Ordnance Survey, 2012, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV348725.

Pink, F., 2014, Devon Extensive Urban Survey Project. Rapid Assessment of Archaeological Interventions (Report - non-specific). SDV357343.

Archaeological excavations were carried out at Wolborough Street, Newton Abbot by Exeter Archaeology in 1983.

Dudley, E. R., August 1983, Road Excavations (Worksheet). SDV359072.

Contact prints of road excavations between Highweek Street and Wolborough Street in August 1983.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV6634 - Excavation, Wolborough Street, Newton

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