Plympton

Although the name of the town appears to be derived from its location on the River Plym (compare, for instance, Otterton or Yealmpton), this is not considered to be the case. As J. Brooking Rowe pointed out in 1906, the town is not and never was sited on the river – rather it is sited on the ancient trackway called 'the Ridgeway' from Dartmoor.[1] The earliest surviving documentary reference to the place is as Plymentun in Anglo-Saxon charter S380 dated to around 900 AD,[2] and this name may be derived from the Old English adjective plymen, meaning "growing with plum-trees". So Plympton would have the meaning "Plum-tree farm".[3] Alternatively, Cornish derivations also give ploumenn meaning 'plum' and plo(b)m meaning 'lead' – possibly related to Latin plombum album ( 'British lead') or tin.[4] The local civic association, however, suggests an unsupported alternative derivation from the Celtic Pen-lyn-dun ("fort at the head of a creek").[5]

By the early 13th century, the River Plym was named from a back-formation from this name and nearby Plymstock.[3] This later led to the naming of the fishing port created at the river's mouth (Plymouth, originally named Sutton) when the river estuary silted up too much for the monks to sail up river to Plympton any longer.

Nearby is the Iron Age hill fort of Boringdon Camp. Plympton is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as being held by the king (William the Conqueror), with 27 villagers, 12 smallholders and 6 slaves.[6]

In the early 12th century Plympton was the site of an important priory founded by William Warelwast. The members were Augustinian canons and the priory soon became the second richest monastic house in Devon (after Tavistock). The gatehouse of the priory is still in existence. In 1872 it was recorded that the gatehouse, kitchen and refectory were still in good condition.[7]

Plympton's motte and bailey castle

Richard de Redvers (died 1107) was granted the feudal barony of Plympton, based at Plympton Castle, by King Henry I (1100–1135), of whom he was a most trusted supporter. The de Redvers family later became Earls of Devon. Their lands, including Plympton, and titles were later inherited by the Courtenay family, feudal barons of Okehampton. The ancient Stannary town remains dominated by its now ruined Norman motte-and-bailey castle and it still retains a cohesive medieval street pattern. A number of historic buildings in the local vernacular style of green Devon slate, limestone and lime-washed walls, with Dartmoor granite detailing, attest to all periods of its history.

Before the Reform Act 1832 the town was one of the rotten boroughs, and sent two MPs to the unreformed House of Commons.

Sir Joshua Reynolds in a self-portrait

The town was the birthplace and early residence of the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792) who became the first president of the Royal Academy of Arts. He was mayor of Plympton in 1773.[8] His father was headmaster of Plympton Grammar School which is a historic building in the centre of the town. Former pupils were Benjamin Haydon and Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, PRA, who were respectively first director of the National Gallery and first president of the Royal Photographic Society. Many of Reynold's paintings were purchased by his friends the Parker family of local Saltram House, now owned by the National Trust, and are still on public display there.

The manor of Boringdon in Colebrook was a seat of the Parker family formerly of North Molton, which later acquired Saltram.

Loughtor (after c.1718 renamed Newnham Park) was the seat of the Selman family, of whom several were MPs. William Selman II was five times MP for Plympton Erle between 1420 and 1429.[9] The estate was later a minor seat of a cadet branch of the Courtenay family.

Newnham was a manor that was the seat of the Strode family,[10] whose monuments exist in St Mary's Church.

Plympton has two churches. The church of St Thomas at Plympton St Maurice (also known as the church of St Maurice) is of Norman origin. Its tower was rebuilt in the middle of the 15th century. The church was restored by E. H. Sedding in 1878. It includes a monument to Joshua Reynolds that was erected in 1904.[11]

St Mary's church was dedicated in 1311 and was originally a parish chapel attached to Plympton Priory. It has two aisles on each side of the nave, the outer aisles being shorter than the inner ones. The tower, built of granite ashlar, is visible from afar. The south porch is ornamented with carving and has a lierne vault. The outer north aisle is the earliest part of the church and the rest is mainly of the 15th century, the south aisle being the latest part. There are monuments to the Strode family, including a tomb-chest for Richard Strode (died 1464), the effigy being clad in armour. The monument of William Strode (died 1637) and his family shows husband, two wives and ten children. There is also a monument of W. Seymour (died 1801) in Coade stone and of Viscount Boringdon, the 11-year-old heir to the Earl of Morley of Saltram House who died in Paris in 1817, by François-Nicolas Delaistre.[11]

Between about 1990 and 2010 Plympton has seen considerable growth as the suburban population of Plymouth has doubled. To help manage this rapid growth more efficiently, Plympton has been separated into a series of separate districts: Yealmpstone, Plympton-St Maurice, Colebrook, Underwood, Woodford and Chaddlewood.

• Elizabeth Johnson, religious pamphleteer, born in Plympton in 1721
• Ellen Marriage, pioneer Balzac translator, and her husband Edmund Garrett, an Ibsen translator, lived here up to Garrett's death in 1907[19]
• David Owen, former Foreign Secretary, born in Plympton
• Sir Joshua Reynolds, painter, born in Plympton
• Sir Edwin Sandys, founded the colony of Jamestown, was an MP for Plympton
• Richard Strode, MP for Plympton, established Parliamentary privilege
• William Warelwast, buried here (in the priory)
• Paul Rogers, actor, born in Plympton

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Plympton.

• Plympton at Curlie
• The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History – Plympton Priory