Ashburton, Devon

Ashburton is a town on the south-southeastern edge of Dartmoor in Devon, England, adjacent to the A38. The town is 20 miles (32 km) northeast of Plymouth and 17 miles (27 km) southwest of Exeter.

It was formerly important as a stannary town (a centre for the administration of tin-mining), and remains the largest town within the national park. Ashburton has two pubs within the centre of town and six restaurants/cafés. The town is also part of the electoral ward named Ashburton and Buckfastleigh, the population of which at the 2011 census was 7,718.

History
The town's name derives from the Old English æsc-burna-tun meaning 'farm/settlement with a stream frequented by ash trees'.

The name is recorded in the Domesday Book (1086) as Essebretone. Ashburton was then the main town of the Parish of Ashburton, in Teignbridge Hundred. During the English Civil War, Ashburton was a temporary refuge for Royalist troops fleeing after their defeat by General Fairfax at nearby Bovey Tracey.

The town was the terminus of the Buckfastleigh, Totnes and South Devon Railway that opened on 1 May 1872. Ashburton railway station closed to passengers in November 1958 although goods traffic on the line continued until 7 September 1962. Links to Buckfastleigh and Totnes are maintained by Country Bus route 88 which also serves Newton Abbot.

Ashburton used to be famous for a beverage known as Ashburton Pop, possibly a type of champagne, the recipe of which was lost with the brewer in 1765.

Ashburton Carnival is one of the oldest, possibly the oldest, surviving in Devon. Written records date it back to 1891, but it is believed to have been started in the mid-1880s to raise funds for a new hospital.

Ashburton Golf Club (now defunct) was founded in 1910. The club continued into the 1920s.

Ashmoor Hockey Club was formed in 2003 and plays at South Dartmoor Community College.

Politics
Ashburton was the first place to elect a candidate of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party to public office. The candidate was Alan Hope, a local publican, who was elected unopposed to Ashburton Town Council in 1989. He subsequently became deputy mayor and later mayor of Ashburton.

The town is one of a few to still annually appoint a portreeve or 'port warden'. Others are Laugharne, Beccles, Callington (where the name is given to the council chairman), and Yeovil.

Sites of interest
The parish church of St Andrew is a Grade One Building and a fine building of the 15th century with a tall tower and two aisles. The 15th-century church tower includes sculptures by Herbert Edmund Read (1885–1951), who also carved the oak reredos; this is not the art historian Herbert Read. One window has stained glass designed by C. E. Kempe. The porch is partly Norman.

St Lawrence Chapel is a Grade II* Listed Building in St Lawrence Lane in the centre of the town. Originally a chantry chapel and then a grammar school for over 600 years, St Lawrence Chapel is now an important heritage, cultural and community centre, managed by the Guild of St Lawrence.

The town's old Methodist Church (Grade II listed) at 15 West St was built in 1835. In 2015 the Methodist congregation moved to the nearby St Andrew's Church Hall. Their previous building was sold by public auction on 19 July 2017, when it was bought by Ashburton Arts Ltd (a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee) using funds donated or loaned by members of the community. The building now houses Ashburton Arts Centre.

St Gudula's Well and Cross in Old Totnes Road is probably named after St Gulval, also honoured at the village of Gulval in Cornwall.

Ashburton Town Hall was originally built as a market hall in 1850.

Notable people

 * William Howard Allen (1790–1822), United States naval officer, interned for 18 months in Ashburton
 * Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton (1774–1848), politician and financier
 * William Bickford (1774–1834), inventor of the safety fuse used in the mining industry
 * Sir Henry Carew, 7th Baronet (1779–1830), Member of Parliament for Ashburton
 * Richard Carlile (1790–1843), political agitator
 * Athel Cornish-Bowden (born 1943), biochemist, born in Ashburton
 * Edward Dowson (cricketer, born 1880), died in Ashburton in 1933
 * John Dunning, 1st Baron Ashburton (1731–1783), lawyer and politician, born in Ashburton
 * Harry Eve (1856–1940), barrister, judge and politician, represented Ashburton in Parliament
 * Cecil Mallaby Firth (1878–1931), Egyptologist, baptised in Ashburton
 * William Gifford (1756–1826), critic, editor and poet
 * Christopher Hutton (1893–1965) soldier, airman, journalist and inventor, retired to Ashburton
 * John Ireland (Anglican priest) (1761–1842), born in Ashburton and taught in the grammar school
 * Charles Eamer Kempe (1837–1907), designer of the stained glass windows in St. Andrew's Church
 * Barrie Matthews (born 1943), cricketer, born in Ashburton
 * Jim McNichol (born 1958) professional footballer, operated the Exeter Inn in Ashburton
 * Sir Robert Palk, 1st Baronet (1717–1798), born in Ashburton, MP for Ashburton
 * Richard Preston (MP) (1768–1850), legal author and politician, born in Ashburton and member of parliament for Ashburton
 * Stevie Smith (1902–1971), poet and novelist, died in Ashburton
 * Laurence Sulivan (1713–1786), Member of Parliament for Ashburton
 * John Swete (1752–1821), clergyman, landowner, artist, antiquary, historian and topographer, born in Ashburton
 * Thomas Glanville Taylor (1804–1848), astronomer, born and educated in Ashburton
 * Robert Richard Torrens (1812–1884), parliamentarian, writer and land reformer, lived in Ashburton
 * Charles Tucker (British Army officer) (1838–1935), born in Ashburton
 * Ollie Watkins (born 1995) is an England International professional footballer and he was educated at South Dartmoor Community College
 * William John Wills (1834–1861), explorer, attended St Andrew's Grammar School in Ashburton