This film is part of Free

A Trip to Bovey Tracey

A family visit Bovey Tracey and Haytor

Amateur film 1930 10 mins Silent

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Overview

A family visits to Bovey Tracey and the trip is captured on film. Bovey is a market town and one of the main gateways to Dartmoor with a strong rural heritage. It is situated on the River Bovey and originated as a Saxon settlement called Boffa. Its name derives from the river and the De Tracey family who owned the area after the Norman Conquest. The Devon Guild of Craftsmen is based here in a renovated 19th century water mill.

Bovey Tracey is the site of a major battle during the English Civil War which ends in victory for Cromwell’s troops and the Cromwell Arms Pub and the ruined priory known as Cromwell’s Arch are part of the town. Bovey is famed for its potteries combining ball clay and lignite (coal). The bottle kilns are in evidence at the museum located at the House of Marbles. Potteries include Candy Art Pottery and Plichta with Wemyss Ware, first produced in 1882 by Czech Karel Nekola and Fife pottery owner Robert Heron, still produced in Bovey, the rights having been bought after 1930.