County in England
Devon
Devon is the only English county with two separate coasts, and it has used them to launch explorers, pirates, Pilgrims and the cream tea argument.
Key information
- County
- Devon
- Nation
- England
- Population
- about 1.2 million (2021 Census)
- Area
- about 6,700 square kilometres, one of England's largest counties
- Known for
- Cream teas, Dartmoor, the English Riviera, the Jurassic Coast, Drake and the Royal Navy
- What locals are called
- Devonians
- Famous people
- Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Agatha Christie
- Football clubs
- Plymouth Argyle, Exeter City, Torquay United
About Devon
The county with a coast on both sides
Devon's party trick is geography. It has a north coast facing the Bristol Channel and a south coast facing the English Channel, and no other English county can say the same. Between them lies a lot of very hilly country. The north coast is all cliffs, surf and steep villages such as Ilfracombe, Lynmouth and Croyde. The south is softer: estuaries, palm trees and harbour towns such as Dartmouth, Salcombe and Brixham. Out in the Bristol Channel sits Lundy, a granite island with puffins, a pub and a famous marine reserve. In 1986 it became England's first statutory marine nature reserve. In the east, Orcombe Point at Exmouth marks the start of the Jurassic Coast, where red cliffs run towards Dorset and tell some 185 million years of Earth's story.
Where the Pilgrims dropped in and Drake played bowls
Devon has always looked to the sea. Sir Francis Drake was born near Tavistock and became Plymouth's great hero. The tale that he finished a game of bowls on Plymouth Hoe before sailing out against the Spanish Armada in 1588 is one of England's best-loved stories. Sir Walter Raleigh, another Elizabethan adventurer, grew up in East Budleigh. In 1620 the Mayflower left Plymouth for America, having put in at Dartmouth for repairs after its sister ship Speedwell began leaking. Plymouth later became a major Royal Navy base, and Dartmouth is still home to the Britannia Royal Naval College. Dartmouth also gave the world Thomas Newcomen, who built one of the first practical steam engines in the early 1700s.
Moor, monsters and a very famous prison
Dartmoor covers a large part of the county and feels like another world: granite tors, bogs, wandering ponies and prehistoric stone rows. Medieval tin miners were so important that they held their own stannary parliament on the moor, at Crockern Tor. The moor is also Devon's gothic stage. Arthur Conan Doyle set The Hound of the Baskervilles here, and Dartmoor Prison at Princetown, opened in 1809 to hold prisoners from the Napoleonic wars, still looms over the high moor. On the other side of the county, Exmoor spills over from Somerset. Henry Williamson's Tarka the Otter, set in north Devon, gave the area the Tarka Trail.
Cream first, jam second: the great tea war
Devon's most famous food is the cream tea: a warm scone, clotted cream and strawberry jam. The county's rule is simple and fiercely defended. Cream goes on first, jam on top. Cornwall does it the other way round, and neither side shows any sign of backing down. Behind the argument is serious dairy country. Rich pastures produce the cream, and the county also has its own breed, the Red Ruby Devon cattle, which have been farmed here for centuries. Cider, crab from the coast, fresh fish at Brixham and Devon pasties all have loyal followings. Brixham is a major fishing port, and its trawlers land seafood that ends up in restaurants across the country.
Flaming barrels and Uncle Tom Cobley
Every 5 November, Ottery St Mary hosts the Tar Barrels. Local people carry blazing barrels of tar through the streets, a tradition that has run for generations and is not for the faint-hearted. Local people grow up knowing which barrel their family carries. Then there is Widecombe Fair on Dartmoor, made famous by the folk song that lists Uncle Tom Cobley and all, setting off on a grey mare to the fair. The song has made the village known far beyond Devon. Clovelly, a steep cobbled village on the north coast, has no cars in its main street. Goods have traditionally been moved by sledge, and donkeys once carried loads up the hill.
Crime queens, poets and the English Riviera
Torquay, the heart of the English Riviera, produced Agatha Christie, born there in 1890. She is among the best-selling novelists ever, and Torbay still celebrates her with a festival each September. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, born in Ottery St Mary in 1772, grew up in the Devon countryside before writing The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Exeter has one of England's great cathedrals, whose medieval stone vaulted ceiling is among the longest of its kind in the world. Further along the coast, Brunel's railway hugs the sea wall at Dawlish, and in 2014 storms tore away part of the track and left the line dangling over the beach. For football, Devon has Plymouth Argyle, Exeter City and Torquay United, three clubs with passionate followings despite the county's rugby and cricket heritage.