Bovey Tracey
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Bovey Tracey is a small town in Devon on the edge of Dartmoor, its proximity to which gives rise to the "slogan" used on the town's boundary signs, "The Gateway to the Moor". The locals just call the town "Bovey" (pronounced "Buvvy").
It is near the market town of Moretonhampstead. Roughly between the two lies the small village of North Bovey.
Bovey Tracey is twinned with Le Molay-Littry in Normandy.
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[edit] History
Bovey Tracey was an established Saxon community and was known as Boffa by 500 AD. The town gained its second name from the de Tracey family who were "lords of the manor" after the Norman Conquest. One member of the family, William de Tracey, was implicated in the murder of Archbishop Thomas Beckett in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170. It is thought that de Tracey built the parish church of St Peter, St Paul and St Thomas of Canterbury as penance for the murder. The church still stands today and has an unbroken list of vicars from 1258.
During the English Civil War in 1646, Royalist troops were attacked in a local inn by members of Oliver Cromwell's Roundhead army. If local legend is to be believed, the Royalists escaped by throwing coins from the windows in order to distract the poorly paid Roundhead troops. The next day a battle was fought on nearby Bovey Heath ending in victory for Cromwell's army.
The name of Cromwell lives on in the town today in both the popular pub "The Cromwell Arms" and the remains of a nearby stone arch, known locally (and incorrectly) as "Cromwell's Arch". The arch is actually what is left of a priory that stood previously on the site.
Bovey railway station was opened on 26 June 1866 with the new Moretonhampstead and South Devon Railway on a site to the west of the town. It closed to passengers on 28 February 1959, but goods trains continued to operate until 6 July 1970.
[edit] Things to see
- Bovey Tracey Heritage Centre in the old Bovey railway station
- House of Marbles — Free visitor attraction on the site of the historic old pottery with impressive marble runs, marble manufacturing and glass blowing demonstrations
- Devon Guild of Craftsmen Headquarters
- Headquarters of the Dartmoor National Park Authority at Parke
- Devon Wildlife Trust's Bovey Heath nature reserve
[edit] Sport
Bovey Tracey is noted in the cycling community as the start point of the Dartmoor Devil bicycle ride, an annual Audax UK Brevet Populaire event held in late October taking in over 2000m of climbing and over 100km around and across Dartmoor. The ride ends in nearby Manaton.
[edit] External links
- Map sources for Bovey Tracey
- Robert Brown's page about the church bells
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