The Fountain
The area known as The Fountain is generally acknowledged to be the centre of our town. The name derives from the fact that a spring, or ‘fountain’, originally fed water to horses, cattle and dog troughs which were situated in the middle of the junction of Fore Street and the main road from Newton Abbot to Exeter.
The troughs, unveiled by the Lord Clifford on November 12th, 1887 were moved during road improvements in the late 1950s and re-sited to their present position where some properties were demolished to improve visibility for motorists. The Town Council plant them up with seasonal plants nowadays.
Remembering our fallen who gave their lives serving their country.
It is has been with great sadness that the normal Remembrance Parade was unable to take place in 2020, however, poppy wreaths were laid at the War Memorial in Kingsteignton on Sunday 8th November, 2020 by Kingsteignton Town Council Mayor, Cllr Dave Rollason and The Royal British Legion, in respect of our fallen comrades. We hope that our residents were also able to join the national 2 minute silence.
The Royal British Legion would like to thank everybody who has supported them in the past years in various ways and hope that next year they will be able to return to normal arrangements to mark this significant date. In the meantime, may we ask you to please continue to support the ‘Poppy Appeal’.
We know that many of our residents either walked or drove past the Fountain recently and were able to admire the incredible display of knitted, crocheted and handcrafted poppies, made by the ladies of Kingsteignton Post Meridian W. I., the Church’s Mothers Union and some of their friends. There were over 2000 poppies made to mark our fallen comrades and horses during past war times. The Kingsteignton Post Meridian W.I. decided to undertake this project to coincide with marking their 50th Anniversary, 1970 – 2020 as well as the 75th Anniversary of Victory in Europe marking the end of WWII. The ladies have spent many, many hours of hard work knitting, crocheting and assembling these beautiful poppies and horses display and as a Council, we cannot thank you enough!
The Leat
The Leat, or more correctly the Fairwater Leat, can be seen flowing along Crossley Moor Road and Berry Lane towards the church. The water once powered three mills along its route from Well Head, behind the Council Offices in Rydon Road, to Hackney Marsh.
Conservation Area and Listed Buildings
Like most other old settlements, Kingsteignton grew around the church and it is here that many old buildings can be found within the Conservation Area.
There is a wealth of other historically important buildings within the town boundary and the full list of Listed Buildings in Kingsteignton can be found here.
Some interesting articles appear on the Devon Heritage site.
The Old Toll House
Toll House KingsteigntonSituated to the West of Kingsteignton, at the crossroads of Chudleigh Road and Exeter Road, is the Old Toll House. Now in private hands, this Grade II listed building was also known as New Cross Cottage and is thought to have been built for the Totnes and Bridgetown-Pomeroy Turnpike Trust in 1824 along the line of an old Roman road.
A coach and horse cost 1 shilling, horse and cart 6 pence, bullocks cost 2 pence and pedestrians 1 penny. In the foreground of the picture is a trough which contained water for horses.
Fosterville Lodge
Located to the North of Kingsteignton, Fosterville Lodge, formerly known as Bascombe Lodge, was built in the 1820’s as a gatehouse to Ugbrooke Park. Another Grade II listed building, it is constructed of local grey limestone rubble with ashlar limestone dressings.
Further Afield
Stover Country Park is 114 acres of woodland with a lake, marshland, wildlife, Heritage Trail, nature interpretation centre arboretum, raised forest boardwalk, carved seats and Ted Hughes poetry boards. Owned and managed by Devon County Council it can be found on the A382 Newton Abbot to Bovey Tracey road.
The Stover Canal runs to the West of Kingsteignton. It was built by James Templer II of Stover House between 1790 and 1792 to transport ball clay to Teignmouth Docks, other minerals from the Bovey Basin and granite from the quarries at Haytor Rocks. It is presently undergoing restoration having ceased being worked in the mid 20th century.
Ugbrooke House & Gardens just to the North of Kingsteignton, has been home to the Lords Clifford of Chudleigh for over 400 years and is still their private residence.
