Exetours N1 Tiverton

N1. Tiverton

Stagecoach route 55/155

2 per hour – 00 30 past hour (August 2019).

37 minutes Exeter Bus Station to Tiverton Bus Station.

Knightshayes (NT) 5KM from bus station Dartline 398 leaves for Bolham School 1115 1245 then 3KM walk, partly through parkland. Horse-drawn canal trip

Tiverton

The bus station [1] is just to the south of Fore Street. Looking down the hill to the right the Tiverton Museum of Mid Devon Life [2] can be seen. It is well worth a visit, among its highlights an excellent collection of farm wagons and agricultural equipment and the Tivvy Bumper, an actual steam locomotive which used to run on the railway line to Barnstaple, long since torn up and much of its length replaced by the North Devon Link Road. An interesting couple of hours can be spent here before or after exploring the town. Go up the pedestrian street to Fore Street and turn right passing the 18^th century church on the left [3] and arriving in front of the ponderous late Victorian Town Hall. Go down Angel Hill toward the bridge over the River Exe. It is worth crossing the bridge and briefly exploring the handsome terraces of Victorian provided for the workers in the Heathcote textile factory. The factory can be found to the right [5] and it has a fabric retail shop housed in an historic school building by the entrance. 

The Lace Manufactory, Tiverton, c.1830. (SC2982 - Courtesy SWHT)

Returning over the bridge, turn left up St Peter Street [6] passing 16^th century merchant houses, and impressive nonconformist places of worship to arrive at the magnificent Saint Peter's Church with the Greenway porch covered with 15^th century sculptures of ships. 

Tiverton Church, by W. Spreat, 1842 (SC2954 courtesy SWHT)

Beyond the church along a road with the strange name of the Works is Tiverton Castle [8]. Returning to St Peter Street turn right along Newport Street and then right again along Bampton Street. This brings us back to the main shopping area of the town and there are a number of eating places. A pedestrian path to the right leads to the little pannier market [9]. At the end of Bampton Street turn left along Gold Street, past some medieval almshouses to cross the river Lowman by the pleasant open space of Lowman Green [10], complete with a statue of Edward VII – rather less common than those to Queen Victoria. Station Road takes us past Old Blundell's School [11], founded in 1604, its façade covered with carved graffiti giving the names of former students. A National Trust property, its interior is not open to the public as it has been converted into flats. 

Front view of Blundell's School, Tiverton, by W. Spreat, 1847 (SC2969 courtesy SWHT)

Station Road ends at a roundabout on the A396 Great Western Way. Cross this and climb Canal Hill, at the top of which is the Grand Western Canal Country Park [12]. Here is the end of the Tiverton Canal with an interesting interpretation centre and, in the season tearooms and the possibility of a horse-drawn canal trip on a narrow boat. Follow the route back along Station Road, Gold Street and Fore Street to return to the bus station.