Trail Map
Introduction
Introduction
(Panel 1 of 13)
Welcome to the Tiverton Merchants Trail.
The trail is a route around the town with information panels situated at specific places of interest. This app will direct your route and illustrate some of the points mentioned on the panels.
Also look out for the pavement medallions that mark the route. They represent different aspects of the textile trade.
You can start at any point but for convenience we start at the top end of Phoenix Lane where it meets Fore Street. Facing Fore street Panel 1 can be found on the left hand side.
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Gotham House rising from the ashes
Gotham House rising from the ashes
(Panel 2 of 13)
Panel 1. After reading the information on panel 1 take the alley way off Phoenix lane to the left of the panel. After 20 metres or so you will see Gotham House, the home of George Davey(1690- 1746), Merchant who rebuilt this house following the great fire of 1731. This fire gave the opportunity to rebuild houses in this prime are this being the last remaining example.
Trace your steps back to Panel 1 and proceed onto Fore Street and turn left walking towards the imposing Town Hall.
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18th Century Merchants 1
18th Century Merchants 1
(Panel 3 of 13)
Walking along Fore Street on the left hand side you come to Boots the Chemists. This was the site of Oliver Peard's house, later his nephew, Benjamin Dickinson (1737-1806) built his mansion on the same site.
Look for the pavement medallion nearby.
Also on the left is St George's Church said to be Devon's finest Georgian church.
Straight ahead is the Victorian Town Hall. If the town hall is open, look at the Borough seal design in the stained glass doors.
There is another pavement medallion in this area too.
Procced down the hill to the right to the next panel.
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Exe Bridge
Exe Bridge
(Panel 4 of 13)
Stop and read panel 2 to the right of the Town Hall.
Walk down the hill and onto Exe bridge.
This has been a crossing point for the river since medieval times.
Look upriver to see the towns iconic view to St Peter's Church and the Master of Childcot's School high on the right.
Look for the pavement medallion which reminds us that many cloth fulling mills and channels lined the riverbank. Only the Factory Leat remains.
Return back up Angel Hill to St Peter Street.
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16th & 17th Century Merchants 1
16th & 17th Century Merchants 1
(Panel 5 of 13)
At the beginning of St Peter Street opposite Chilcot's School (1611) is the Great House (1603-14) and the Almshouse built by George Slee. Both have Blue Plaques. Walk up St Peter Street noting the Queen Anne, Amory House, c1708, on the right. 18th century merchants built their fine houses where once their Tudor and Stuart forbears lived. One such is Samuel Foote (1625-91), M.P. Tiverton's most important merchant in the later 17th century. He bought the Great House and built another on the site of today's No.17. His trade-mark seal, was a foot. See examples in Tiverton Museum.
Look out for the pavement medallions for Samuel Foote and John Greenway (c1460-1529) who also had houses in this area.
Continue up St Peter Street to St Peter's Church.
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16th & 17th Century Merchants 2
16th & 17th Century Merchants 2
(Panel 6 of 13)
At St Peter's Church There is also a pavement medallion near by.
At St. Peter's notice the intricate cravings of John Greenway's porch and chapel. The church itself is filled with reminders of merchants wealth - their marks on the capitals, their tombs near the chancel.
Step through the churchyard to Tiverton Castle.
Once a stronghold of the Courtenay Earls of Devon, the Civil War ruin became a home to Peter West, of merchant stock, who built a new wing, the South Court in 1685.
Retrace your steps into Newport Street
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Wool Chapel
Wool Chapel
(Panel 7 of 13)
On the corner of The Works and Newport Street, across the road from the church, was The Wool Chapel. This was the site of the busy wool, yarn and cloth market. All that remains is the sign of the Old Lamb Inn.
Retrace your steps back to Newport Street and head towards the Pannier Market. Take the first right turning at Clare House,1816 the former Rectory. and head straight towards the Market, Take the first left along Market Walk which rejoins Bampton Street.
Keep an eye out for the pavement medallion. On the left hand side when you exit Market Walk on Bampton Street is Panel 3.
Look for the a packhorse pavement medallion which reminds us of how wool was carried from Exmoor to Minehead.
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The Widow
The Widow
(Panel 8 of 13)
Go down Bampton Street.
Where you see a pavement medallion is the site of the Corn Market or Market House 1732, its the most important surviving building in Bampton Street. Sympathetically restored in 1971.
Panel 4 gives its history.
Martin Dunsford (1744-1807), churchwarden and historian, was one of the last of the wool merchants. His house and workshops were opposite the Corn Market. Successive wars in the late 18th century ruined his business. He died bankrupt but had somehow found time to write the remarkable Historical Memoirs of Tiverton, 1790, his enduring legacy.
Head towards the bottom of the street.
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Fortunes rise and fall
Fortunes rise and fall
(Panel 9 of 13)
At the bottom of the street on the corner of Fore Street and Bampton Street there is a blue plaque on the right marking the site of Palmerston Hotel. This used to be known as the Three Tuns. Merchants used to meet here to talk business and politics. It was later renamed the Palmerston Hotel. Tiverton's prime hostelry was pulled down in 1961.
A fine mansion stood opposite, built by Samuel Lewis after the 1731 fire. Its splendid facade did not survive conversion to a retail store in 1970 and now houses Argos.
Bear left into Gold street.
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Early Tudor Merchant – John Greenway
Early Tudor Merchant – John Greenway
(Panel 10 of 13)
A little way along Gold Street you will find Panel 4 on the left hand side close to the White Horse public House.
A bit further down the road on the right are the almshouses, founded by John Greenway in 1520's. Additions were opened by Prince Charles in 2004. Look out for the pavement medallion and look across at his merchant's mark carved in stone on the tiny Almshouse Chapel.
Continue down the road and opposite the junction with Barrington Street look for a pavement medallion. This is the entrance to Sharland's Court, typical of where many people lived and worked.
Go over Lowman Bridge where you will see another pavement medallion marking the road to London. On the right is Panel 5
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Living and working
Living and working
(Panel 11 of 13)
Stop at Panel 5 to read about the textile industry.
The story told here evolves around the River Lowman and the different processes in the cloth industry. Fulling mills were worked by leats all along the right bank.
Continue along Station Road.
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Woollen Industry Education
Woollen Industry Education
(Panel 12 of 13)
Walk on a little further to the gateway of Old Blundell's. Now a Grade I listed building owned by the National Trust, it was a school set up as a bequest of Peter Blundell (1520-1601) one of Tivertons most affluent merchants. You can see the building across the green.
At the pavement medallion retrace your steps up Gold Street and back along Fore Street to where the trail started.
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Tiverton Museum of Mid Devon Life
Tiverton Museum of Mid Devon Life
(Panel 13 of 13)
From the top of Phoenix Lane, you can continue to explore Tiverton and Mid Devon's fascinating history by visiting Tiverton Museum,(admission charge applies).
The museum is open February - Christmas, Monday to Friday 10:30-4:30, Saturdays 10:00-1:00. and can be found in Becks Square. Follow the signposts from Phoenix Lane.
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My Tiverton Merchants Trail and the Cloth Industry Notes
Tiverton Merchants Trail and the Cloth Industry
In its heyday (1500-1750), Tiverton was famous for the manufacture of woollen cloth. Thousands found work and merchants grew rich. This trail explores some of the main characters and stories from Tiverton's wool trade.
You can join the Trail at any point, for convenience we start on Phoenix Lane near the Bus Station.
Look out for various pavement medallions in some of the locations that are featured in this trail.
The Merchants Trail was conceived by Tiverton's Civic Society, and revised for Placeify by Tiverton Museum of Mid Devon Life.
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