Returning to the High Street, notice the house of Nicholas Ball, a prosperous merchant whose widow married Thomas Bodley in 1586, using her wealth to found his great library at Oxford.ġ4. The late 15th-century Parish Church of St Mary is built of deep red Devon sandstone and it is particularly noted for its 120 foot tower and stone roodscreen.ġ3. For centuries it has been the heart of the town, serving as a court, prison and meeting place.ġ2. Totnes Guildhall was built in 1553 on the ruins of the medieval priory, founded in 1088. Follow the line of the old town wall behind the beautiful St Mary’s Church.ġ1. Climb the steps on the right to Ramparts Walk. Pass beneath the East Gate Arch, once the gateway to the medieval town and faithfully reconstructed after a devastating fire in 1990.ġ0. The house has many original features and has been carefully restored.ĩ. Built in about 1575 for cloth merchant Walter Kellond, it has twelve galleries, a courtyard, and a herb garden. The Elizabethan House Museum is one of the finest restored Tudor town houses in the country. This features in legend as the place where Brutus the Trojan, founder of the British people, first stepped ashore.Ĩ. Walk back across Fore Street to the Brutus Stone. Continue up Fore Street to the imposing Mansion of 1795, once the grammar school and now used for the community. In Bank Lane, on the left, is the 18th-century Gothic House.
Many of these properties were built for the town’s wealthy merchants in the 16th and 17th centuries.Ħ. Walk up the hill taking time to observe the rich variety of architectural styles above the shops. On the corner you’ll find the Royal Seven Stars Hotel dating from the 17th century and reputedly built on the site of a medieval hostelry.ĥ. Note the town coat of arms and the date 1687.Ĥ. The two granite pillars which originally stood between the converted chapel and the Dartmouth Inn marked the gateway to Town Marsh stretching to the south towards St Peter’s Quay. A stone obelisk commemorates William Wills, explorer of Australia and born here in 1834. Many of the buildings were originally warehouses. Make your way to The Plains, once part of a large tidal marsh. A walkway leads down and around Vire Island, named after the Normandy town twinned with Totnes.ģ. Built in 1828, it replaced an earlier bridge, the foundations of which can be seen at low tide. Totnes Bridge was designed by the Devon architect Charles Fowler.
#Prison architect chapel archive
Here you will find a restored Victorian water wheel and The Image Bank and Rural Archive which holds a growing collection of photographs dating back to the 19th century.Ģ.