Bovey Tracey
Bovey Tracey town square
Bovey Tracey Location withinDevon
Population	7,996
OS grid reference	SX817784
District	Teignbridge
Shire county	Devon
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	NEWTON ABBOT
Postcode district	TQ13
Dialling code	01626
Police	Devon and Cornwall
Fire	Devon and Somerset
Ambulance	South Western
UK Parliament	Central Devon
List of places UK England Devon 50°35′35″N3°40′19″W / 50.593°N 3.672°W /50.593; -3.672

Bovey Tracey (/ˌbʌviˈtreɪsi/) is a town andcivil parish inDevon, England. It is located on the edge ofDartmoor, which gives rise to the slogan used on the town's boundary signs:The Gateway to the Moor. It is often known locally asBovey. About 10 miles (16 km) south-west ofExeter, it lies on theA382 road, about halfway betweenNewton Abbot andMoretonhampstead. The village is at the centre of theelectoral ward of Bovey. At the 2021 census, it had a population of 7,996, which was an increase on the 7,168 recorded in the 2011 census.^[1]

Bovey Tracey was an establishedSaxon community and takes its name from theRiver Bovey. The name first appears in theDomesday Book of 1086 asBovi^[2] and possibly earlier asBuui. The town gained its second name from the de Tracey family, who were lords of the manor after theNorman Conquest of 1066, and was first documented asBovitracy in 1309.^[3]

One member of the family,William de Tracy, was implicated in the murder of ArchbishopThomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170. It is thought that he rebuilt the parish church of St Peter, St Paul and St Thomas of Canterbury as penance for the murder. In the early 13th century, Henry de Tracey created aborough here and, in 1259, was granted the right to hold a weekly market and an annual three-day fair.^[4]

During theEnglish Civil War, on 9 January 1646,Oliver Cromwell and a contingent of his Roundhead army entered Bovey Tracey after dark and caught part ofLord Wentworth's Regiment by surprise, catching a number of officers playing cards in an inn. Many of Wentworth's Royalist troops escaped, but Cromwell did capture about 400 horses.^[5] If local legend is to be believed, the Royalists escaped by throwing coins from the windows in order to distract the poorly paid Roundhead troops. The next day a battle was fought on nearbyBovey Heath ending in victory for Cromwell's army.

The name of Cromwell lives on in the town today in both thepublic house,The Cromwell Arms, and the remains of a nearby stone arch, known locally (and incorrectly) asCromwell's Arch. The arch is claimed to be what is left of a priory that stood previously on the site of the nearby Baptist Church. It has been shown through many historical documents that this is a local myth perpetuated by local historians, and that there is no evidence that a priory once stood in the centre of Bovey Tracey.

TheBovey Tracey Potteries operated from the 1750s for about 200 years.

Bovey Tracey wastwinned withLe Molay-Littry inNormandy,France; however, in February 2018, local councillors discovered surprisingly that the French town had unexpectedly twinned with another location,Theydon Bois in Essex.^[6]

Bovey Tracey lies in the valley of theRiver Bovey at the junction of theA382 road (between Newton Abbot and Moretonhampstead) and the B3387 road (Chudleigh Knighton toHaytor Vale).

Between 1977 and 2008, the highest recorded temperature was 31.8 °C (89.2 °F) on 3 August 1990 and the lowest was −10.7 °C (12.7 °F) on 13 January 1987.^[7]

Bovey Tracey is served byNewton Abbot railway station, which lies on theExeter-Plymouth line.Great Western Railway operates local services toExmouth,Exeter St Davids,Dawlish,Teignmouth andPaignton; it also provides inter-city services toLondon Paddington,Reading,Plymouth andPenzance.^[10]

The town was once served byBovey railway station; it opened on 26 June 1866 with the newMoretonhampstead and South Devon Railway, on a site to the west of the town. It closed to passengers on 28 February 1959, but goods trains continued to operate until 6 July 1970.^[11]

The main bus operators in the area areStagecoach South West and Country Bus (Newton Abbot). Key routes link the town withExeter,Newton Abbot,Moretonhampstead,Tavistock andIvybridge.^[12]

The town has over a hundredlisted buildings.^[13] The parish church, at the top of the town, is grade I listed.^[14] It has a tower dating from the 14th century, many 15th-century carvings including threemisericords and a screen described byArthur Mee as "one of the finest in this county of fine screens".^[15] The screen was restored in 1887 with the central panels the work ofCharles Edgar Buckeridge.^[16] The church has an unbroken list of vicars from 1258. On Hind Street, the East Dartmoor Baptist Church was built in 1824 and is now grade II listed. The church was founded by workers in the Bovey Potteries.^[17]Bovey Tracey Town Hall was completed in 1866.^[18]

Since 1986, the Devon Guild of Craftsmen contemporary crafts gallery has occupied a building known as Riverside Mill, on the bank of the River Bovey.^[19] The building, dating from 1854, has anundershot waterwheel that was used to pump water up to a tank in its tower. The stored water was used as the supply for a nearby house owned by John Divett and to water its stable yard and gardens.^[20] Nearby, theBovey Tracey Heritage Centre in the disused Bovey railway station is run by volunteers and is open in the summer months.^[21]

On the outskirts of the town are theHouse of Marbles, a visitor attraction on the site of the historic pottery;^[22] and the headquarters of theDartmoor National Park Authority atParke, a large house which is leased to the authority by theNational Trust.^[23] Also nearby are aDevon Wildlife Trust nature reserve atBovey Heath and theHaytor Granite Tramway, the route of which runs through the parish, west of the town.

According to the town council, the town has a "good mixture of shops" and there is afarmers' market on alternate Saturday mornings.^[23]

The town also hosts multiple events throughout the year for both tourists and the local community, including:

• Nourish, a food and gin festival held in September^[24]
• Green Man Festival of morris dancers and other folk traditions, at the end of April.
• Contemporary Craft Festival, held in June.^[25]

Within the parish of Bovey Tracey are various historic estates, including:

• Indio, long a seat of theSouthcott family,^[26] later of Bentinck. TheIndeo Pottery was established here between about 1766 and 1785.
• Parke, seat of Nicholas Eveleigh (d.1620) whose monument with effigy survives in Bovey Tracey Church. His widow marriedElize Hele, whose monument and effigy faces that of Eveleigh. There are several inscribed tablets to later owners in Bovey Tracey Church. Now the headquarters of theDartmoor National Park Authority.

Bovey Tracey is the start point of the Dartmoor Devilbicycle ride, an annualAudax UKBrevet Populaire event held in late October that takes in over 2,000 m of climbing and over 100 km around and acrossDartmoor,^[27] the ride ends in nearbyManaton.

The town has aNon-League football clubBovey Tracey A.F.C. who play at The Western Counties Roofing Ground in theSouth West Peninsula League.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toBovey Tracey.

• Bovey Tracey Town Council

• Bovey Tracey
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• Dartmoor
• Civil parishes in Devon
• Teignbridge

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