Ivybridge

Coordinates: 50°23′20″N 3°55′16″W / 50.389°N 3.921°W / 50.389; -3.921
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses, see Ivy Bridge.

Ivybridge
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townIVYBRIDGE
Postcode districtPL21
Dialling code01752
PoliceDevon and Cornwall
FireDevon and Somerset
AmbulanceSouth Western
UK Parliament
Websiteivybridge.gov.uk
List of places
UK
England
Devon
50°23′20″N 3°55′16″W / 50.389°N 3.921°W / 50.389; -3.921

Ivybridge

electoral wards
in Ivybridge East and Ivybridge West with a total population of 11,851.

Mentioned in documents as early as the 13th century, Ivybridge's early history is marked by its status as an important crossing-point over the River Erme on the road from Exeter to Plymouth. In the 16th century mills were built using the River Erme's power. The parish of Saint John was formed in 1836.[2] Ivybridge became a civil parish in 1894 and a town in 1977.

The early urbanisation and development of Ivybridge largely coincided with the Industrial Revolution. Stowford Paper Mill was built in 1787 and rebuilt again in the 1860s with extensive investment. In 1848 the South Devon Railway arrived on the northern edge of the village. The paper mill closed in 2013 after 226 years in Ivybridge and the buildings are being converted to homes and shops.[3] Ivybridge is often referred to as a commuter town, although a small proportion of people work in the town itself, and agriculture continues to play an economic role for the surrounding area. The area surrounding Ivybridge is varied and complex, including river valleys, farmland and dense woodland.

While heavy industry diminished during the latter half of the 20th century, the population grew significantly from 1,574 people in 1921 to 12,056 in 2001.[4]

History

The Ivy Bridge as painted by J. M. W. Turner in 1813.

The name Ivybridge is derived from a small 13th century hump-backed bridge of the same name. The Ivy Bridge was the only means of crossing the river until the 1830s although plans were put forward in 1819. "Ivy" was used to describe the bridge, because there was

ivy growing along the bridge. As the bridge was the centre of the village and important to its very existence, it was named the "parish of Ivybridge" in 1894.[4]

The first mention of a settlement in the Ivybridge area was the manor of Stowford in the

corn mill, a tin mill and an edge mill. One of the mills, 'Glanville's Mill' (a corn mill), was situated where many of the town shops are today and gives its name to the shopping centre.[6] The first church (Saint John's) was built in 1790 as a chapel of ease, but 45 years later in 1835 it was consecrated as a district church. The oldest burial in St John's church yard is from 1836.[2]
In the 1830s the Ivy Bridge lost its position as the only means of crossing the river when the 'New Bridge' was built joining Fore Street and Exeter Road. Today, this bridge has been modernised so as to carry the increased weight and traffic of the 21st century. Stowford Mill is depicted on a commemorative coin produced for the town of Ivybridge by Bigbury Mint Ltd, based in Ermington near the town. The 25 mm diameter coin also features the town's viaduct which stands at an impressive 104 feet high. The coin was first struck circa 2005 by Bigbury Mint.

In 1977 Ivybridge became a town. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s it underwent a period of rapid growth and was designated as the fastest growing town in Europe, the construction of the A38 "Devon Expressway" adjacent to the town significantly contributed to the town growth during this period.

Governance

The old town hall at Chapel Place
The new town hall at Erme Court

Ivybridge is represented by five tiers of elected government.

It is a town and parish divided into two wards: Ivybridge East (the east of the River Erme) and Ivybridge West (the west of the River Erme).[10] The current mayor is Councillor Dave Gray-Taylor who was appointed in 2015.[8] In 2007 Ivybridge town council won the Aon/NALC (National Association of Local Councils) Council of the Year.[11] The old town hall in Chapel Place is located close to the centre of the town, while the new town hall is located at Erme Court.[12]

Before 1894 Ivybridge was made up of four neighbouring parishes:

South West Devon
since 1997.

The town forms part of the

Conservative party who held 56.6% of the votes at the 2015 election.[14] The town's two wards are each used for voting at the local elections and general elections.[15]

International links

Ivybridge's first official twinning was with Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives in 1972 before Ivybridge became a town. Since then it has developed unofficial town twinnings (exchanges) and friendship treaties:[16]

Geography

Ivybridge[17]
Climate chart (explanation)
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At coordinates 50°23′28″N 3°55′12″W / 50.39111°N 3.92000°W / 50.39111; -3.92000 Ivybridge is situated deep in the south western peninsula of England, Ivybridge is 182 miles (293 kilometres) from London, 10 miles (16 km) from Totnes and 28 miles (45 km) from Exeter. The main road in and out of the town (the A38) allows fast access to its nearby city Plymouth for many of Ivybridge's commuters.

The topography of Ivybridge is generally hilly. This is because of the River Erme which flows right through the centre of town. To the east and to the west of the river the land is elevated forming a valley. The river first enters the town at 300 feet (91 m) above sea level and leaves the town at 130 feet (40 m) above sea level. At its height the top of the east and west of the valley is 260 feet (79 m) above sea level. The western beacon is a hill that overlooks the town; its peak can be seen from almost anywhere in the town. It is 1,076 feet (328 m) above sea level and 912 feet (278 m) above the town. There is also an area of woodland called Longtimber Woods to the north of the town, which attracts many walkers along its riverside path.

The geology of Ivybridge is varied. Throughout most of the town the rock is

Devonian period.[18] To the north of the town Granite can be found as it is situated on the slopes of Dartmoor – a large pre-volcanic area of Granite. Along the River Erme large boulders and rocks can be found deposited on its meandering path brought all the way from Dartmoor; the Ivy Bridge itself is made out of Granite
.

River Erme at Ivybridge

The

retail outlets along Fore Street – the town's central business district. In the middle layer of the town most buildings are semi-detached and built on quite steep roads. More detached houses are found on the outer layers of the city on the east and on the west of the town. Over the past decades the town has been shaped by its two most essential pieces of infrastructure: the railway line to the north and the A38 dual carriageway
to the south. No large scaling housing has been built on either side of these boundaries. Due to this Ivybridge has been forced to grow east and west rather than north and south; it stretches approximately 1.76 miles (2.83 km) from east to west and 1 mile (1.6 km) from north to south.

Climate

Along with the rest of South West England, Ivybridge has a temperate climate which is generally wetter and milder than the rest of the British Isles. The annual mean temperature is approximately 11 °C (52 °F) and shows a seasonal and a diurnal variation, but due to the modifying effect of the sea the range is less than in most other parts of the British Isles.[19] February is the coldest month with mean minimum temperatures between 3 °C (37 °F) and 4 °C (39 °F). July and August are the warmest months with mean daily maxima over 19 °C (66 °F).[17]

The

climate of South West England has a favoured location with respect to the Azores high pressure when it extends its influence north-eastwards towards the British Isles, particularly in summer. Coastal areas have average annual sunshine totals over 1,600 hours.[19]

Rainfall tends to be associated with Atlantic

depressions or with convection. The Atlantic depressions are more vigorous in autumn and winter and most of the rain which falls in those seasons in the south-west is from this source. Average annual rainfall is around 980 millimetres (39 in). The number of days with snow falling is typically less than ten per winter. November to March have the highest mean wind speeds, with June to August having the lightest winds. The predominant wind direction is from the south-west[19] and, as a result, the air quality in Ivybridge may be reduced by the (proposed) construction of an incinerator southwest of the town (at the New England Quarry) with possible implications for health.[20]

Demography

Population change in Ivybridge since 1911
Population change in Ivybridge since 1911

Ivybridge's most recent census indicates that Ivybridge had a population of 11,851.

median age of 42 (up from 36 since 2001),[23] which is above the national average of 39.[24]

The ethnicity of Ivybridge is predominately white with 98.7% of the population identifying themselves as such. This is slightly higher than the local average of the South Hams (98.3%) and much higher than the national average for England (85.5%). Of the remaining ethnic groups, 0.7% are mixed, 0.5% are Asian, 0.1% are Black and 0.1% are classed as other.[25]

Economy

Paper Mill

Ivybridge's earliest known economy relied on the

china clay railway to Redlake in the heart of the moor, another follows the Erme through Longtimber Woods. There are other accesses to the Moor. The Two Moors Way, which crosses Dartmoor and Exmoor starts in Ivybridge and finishes in Lynmouth on the North Devon
coast.

The shopping area is mainly along Fore Street and Glanvilles Mill and provides many jobs and services for the town, although the local schools combine to be the biggest employers. There are some out of town jobs at the

public houses
: The Sportsmans, the Trehill Arms, the Exchange, the Old Smithy, the Duke of Cornwall and the Imperial.

Landmarks

The town's natural landmark is Western Beacon; a hill that overlooks the town. People walk up there for the views of Ivybridge and the South Hams. The town's first manmade landmark is the Ivy Bridge; a 13th-century hump-backed bridge covered in Ivy. It is still in use today and gives the name of the town – Ivybridge. The two remaining industrial landmarks of the town are the viaduct over the River Erme and the paper mill. The original viaduct was built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1848, only the granite piers remain. The operational line alongside was built by Sir James Charles Inglis opened in 1894 for the Great Western Railway. It still carries the mainline trains. They were key to the town's initial growth in the Industrial Revolution and are still importance to the town today. In the centre of the town a war memorial, equidistant from three of the churches, was unveiled in 1922 and each year on Remembrance Day the town holds a ceremony to those who lost their lives. In recent years another memorial has also been built nearby commemorating the lives of American servicemen stationed in and near the town in 1943–1944, many of whom died on Omaha Beach on D-Day. The Watermark is one of the town's modern landmarks, which began construction in 2007 and was completed in March 2008 at a cost of £1.4 million.[26] It functions as a library, entertainment venue, cinema and offers office space.[27]

Transport

Wrangaton
.

The first railway station at Ivybridge was not complete when the South Devon Railway was opened, but was brought into use six weeks later on 15 June 1848. The building was situated on the north side of the track, immediately to the west of Ivybridge Viaduct. Passenger trains were withdrawn in 1959 and the goods facility closed in 1965. On 15 July 1994 a new station was opened on a new site costing £380,000, outside the town, to the east.[28] It is operated by Great Western Railway who run links to London Paddington via Exeter and also south west to Cornwall. The station is advertised as a Park and Ride for the nearby city of Plymouth, although the level of service is infrequent and sporadic.

The town has a bus service (Gold) to Plymouth, Totnes, Paignton and Torquay operated by Stagecoach South West. It operates a half hourly route with Ivybridge as a primary stop. The X38 bus to Exeter is every 2 hours, and is also operated by Stagecoach South West. Plymouth Citybus operate the hourly 20A service to Plymouth, via Lee Mill and Plympton. This is a popular bus with shoppers, as it calls at the Tesco Superstore in Lee Mill.

Shopping

The shopping area is mainly along Fore Street, with some small shops and restaurants situated in the Glanvilles Mill shopping centre which is accessible from Fore Street and the car park.[citation needed]

Education

See also: List of schools in Devon
Erme Primary School – the town's first school

The town has six schools: four state primary schools, the Dame Hannah Roger's special school, and

CBE for his services to education.[32]

Religion

Ivybridge Evangelical Church

Ivybridge has five churches. St John's Church (Anglican) is the parish church situated in Blachford Road. There is also an

Roman Catholic
church – St Austin's Priory. The Salvation Army Church hold meetings in Fore Street.

In 2011, 65.1% of the population stated that they were Christian, 26.5% stated as no religion and 7.8% did not state their religion. Furthermore, there were a few people stating other religions: 0.3 (31 people) as other religions, 0.2% (18 people) stated as

Hindu, and one Jew.[33] Since 2001, there has been a shift from Christian (down 13 percentage points) to non-religious (up 12 points).[34]

Sports

Ivybridge playing fields

Each April the Ivybridge walking and outdoor festival takes place. There are various leisure facilities in the town: the South Dartmoor Leisure Centre features an indoor swimming pool, an outdoor swimming pool, an indoor sports hall, squash courts and gymnasium facilities. The South Devon Tennis Centre has four indoor and four outdoor courts. Next to the South Devon Tennis Centre are the Erme playing fields (Erme Valley) which hold a cricket field (with a practice net), two football pitches and the Erme Valley Harriers (athletics and road running). The town's football team, called Ivybridge Town F.C., was founded in 1925 and play at region level in the South West Peninsula League.[35] The town's flat green bowls club is situated at the end of Bridge Park. There is also a skatepark in the centre of the town and rugby pitches on the eastern outskirts of town at Ivybridge Rugby Football Club. Filham Park has a Cricket Club, football pitches and a fishing lake. The other local football club, Manstow FC, play on the football pitches located in Filham Park.

Media

Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC South West and ITV West Country. Television signals are received from the Caradon Hill TV transmitter [36] and the local relay transmitter. [37]

Local radio stations are BBC Radio Devon, Heart West, Greatest Hits Radio South West, and TorDab, a community based station which broadcast from Torquay. [38]

The town is served by the local newspaper, Ivybridge & South Brent Gazette which publishes on Fridays. [39]

Public services

Ivybridge Fire Station

Devon and Cornwall Constabulary serve the town's policing matters and there is a small police station in the centre of the town. Ivybridge has one retained fire station (number 53) on the southern outskirts of town, which is in the west division of Devon as part of Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service
. It has a water tender ladder, prime mover, environmental pod and an incident support unit. The fire station used to be closer to the centre of the town.

Notable residents

In art and literature

An engraving of a painting of the river by Thomas Allom, together with a poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon set to music by Henry Russell, were published in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1835.[42]

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ivybridge.

References

  1. ^ a b c "Key Figures for 2011 Census: Key Statistics". Office for National Statistics. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  2. ^ a b "Ivybridge". Morris and Co.'s Commercial Directory and Gazetteer 1870. Archived from the original on 13 September 2009. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
  3. ^ Ivybridge Heritage
  4. ^ a b c "Census statistics 1801–2001". Devon County Council. Archived from the original on 27 February 2006. Retrieved 26 April 2008.
  5. ISBN 1-899073-46-9. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 14 December 2010. Retrieved 28 April 2008.
  6. ^ a b "The Past and The Present". Ivybridge Town Council website. Archived from the original on 23 December 2007. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
  7. ISBN 1-86077-204-8. Archived from the original
    on 25 December 2007. Retrieved 28 June 2008.
  8. ^ a b "Ivybridge Town Council". Ivybridge Town Council website. Archived from the original on 31 January 2016. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  9. ISBN 0-11-750847-0
    .
  10. ^ "Devon Town Baseline Profile" (PDF). Devon County Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 October 2008. Retrieved 26 April 2008.
  11. ^ "Council of the Year 2007". National Association of Local Councils. Archived from the original on 21 November 2008. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
  12. ^ Van der Kiste (2010). p. 38.
  13. ISBN 1-899073-46-9. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 14 December 2010. Retrieved 30 April 2008.
  14. ^ "South West Devon results 2015". BBC News Online. 8 May 2015. Archived from the original on 7 October 2015. Retrieved 2 October 2015.
  15. ^ "South West Devon constituency schedule" (PDF). South Hams District Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
  16. ^ "Ivybridge International Links". Ivybridge Town Guide. Archived from the original on 8 July 2008. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
  17. ^ a b "Climatological Information for Plymouth, United Kingdom". Hong Kong Observatory. Archived from the original on 24 May 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
  18. ^ "Geological map of Great Britain". Stanford Geological Atlas (1904). Archived from the original on 25 March 2007. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
  19. ^ a b c "About south-west England". The Met Office. Archived from the original on 25 February 2006. Retrieved 28 May 2006.
  20. ^ "Ecoivy". Archived from the original on 6 January 2010. Retrieved 7 January 2010.
  21. ^ "The 2011 Census programme". Office for National Statistics. 18 May 2012. Archived from the original on 27 May 2012. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  22. ^ "Census shows increase in population of the South West as it tops 5 million". Office for National Statistics. 16 July 2012. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  23. ^ "Parish Profile – People". Office for National Statistics. Archived from the original on 13 June 2011. Retrieved 23 May 2008.
  24. ^ "Age Structure, 2011". Office for National Statistics. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  25. ^ "Ethnic Group, 2011". Office for National Statistics. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  26. ^ "Customers can scan and go at new Ivybridge Library". Devon County Council. Archived from the original on 14 April 2008. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
  27. ^ "The Watermark Business Centre". The Watermark. Archived from the original on 3 October 2015. Retrieved 2 October 2015.
  28. ISBN 1-899073-46-9. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 14 December 2010. Retrieved 28 April 2008.
  29. ^ "About us (Ivybridge Community College)". Ivybridge Community College. Archived from the original on 11 December 2007. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
  30. ^ "Breeze claims medal hat-trick". BBC News Online. 31 July 2002. Archived from the original on 11 April 2004. Retrieved 22 May 2008.
  31. ^ "Breeze lands Welsh lifting gold". BBC News Online. 19 March 2006. Archived from the original on 6 June 2007. Retrieved 22 May 2008.
  32. ^ "No. 56797". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2002. p. 8.
  33. ^ "Religion, 2011". Office for National Statistics. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  34. ^ "Ivybridge Religion dataset". Office for National Statistics. Archived from the original on 13 June 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
  35. ^ "Club History Ivybridge". Ivybridge Town F.C. Archived from the original on 13 July 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
  36. ^ "Full Freeview on the Caradon Hill (Cornwall, England) transmitter". UK Free TV. 1 May 2004. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  37. ^ "Freeview Light on the Ivybridge (Devon, England) transmitter". UK Free TV. 1 May 2004. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  38. ^ "More radio choice on the way for local listeners". Ivybridge & South Brent Gazette. 10 January 2023. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  39. ^ "Ivybridge & South Brent Gazette". British Papers. 19 May 2014. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  40. ^ "Doctors serving people in Ivybridge". Ivybridge Town Council website. Archived from the original on 28 August 2008. Retrieved 26 April 2008.
  41. ^ "Dentists serving people in Ivybridge". Ivybridge Town Council website. Archived from the original on 15 August 2007. Retrieved 26 April 2008.
  42. ^ Landon, Letitia Elizabeth (1834). "poetical illustration and music". Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1835. Fisher, Son & Co. Landon, Letitia Elizabeth (1834). "picture". Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1835. Fisher, Son & Co.

External links

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