Welcome to Tavistock Twinning

Tavistock is a thriving market town situated on the edge of the Dartmoor National Park and was voted top of a list of 120 market towns in 2004 in a survey run by the Council for the Protection of Rural England in its countryside character campaign based on retaining individuality and distinctiveness, sensitive planning and new development, architecture, sense of history, thriving shops and business, and community spirit. This was quoted in the major daily broadsheets including The Telegraph, The Guardian and The Independent. It has good shopping facilities and a full range of state schools plus several public schools, including preparatory and a senior college. Recreational facilities include golf courses, cricket, rugby, football and tennis clubs and all indoor sports. Scenic walks abound. Tavistock is 15 miles from Plymouth where there is a civil airport offering regular internal and continental flights, a cross Channel ferry service to Roscoff, Brittany, and a British Rail Inter City service to London, Bristol and the North.

A Royal Charter granted in 1105 by Henry I is still in operation and the Town Council are the current custodians. The Charter gives the sole right to operate markets within 6 2/3rd miles of the Market site - this distance equates to the old measure of two leagues, being accepted as a reasonable distance to walk to market with one's stock and walk back after completion of the days trading.

 

The present market was purpose built in the 1850's by the beneficence of the 7th Duke of Bedford, the then holder of the Charter. To erect the building it was necessary to re-route the river Tavy. Other buildings erected in the same programme were the Magistrates Court, Police Station, Town Hall and a run of shops along Duke Street and around the Market itself.

Apart from electric lighting and heating today’s Pannier Market is little changed from the original build, and is possibly the finest example in the South West of a traditional Pannier Market offering themed days giving visitors the chance of experiencing a diversity of goods. Refreshments are available from a number of stalls and small shops around the Market

Markets are held most days in the Pannier Market, central Tavistock.
Tuesdays - Antiques, Collectibles, Bric-a-Brac and hand crafted Wares
Wednesdays - A Mixed Market with a varied ranged of Goods and Crafted Wares
Thursdays - Another interesting Mixed Market of Goods and Crafted Wares.
Fridays - The original Charter Market dating from 1105 (Charter).
Saturdays -
every first, Aladdin's Cave
every second, Craft
every third, Mixed
every fourth, Victorian
every fifth, to be announced in local press.

A mix of goods, produce, organic produce and of course home to the Tavistock WI.

 

Brentor Church
12th century, spectacularly situated on the tor close to Brentor Village, north of Tavistock

Buckland Abbey
(National Trust)
south of Tavistock, near Yelverton,
which Sir Francis Drake
and, later, Sir Richard Grenville
had as their homes.

Castle Drogo,
(National Trust)
close to Drewsteignton village:
the spectacular last castle built in Britain

Cotehele House and Gardens
(National Trust)
near the town of Gunnislake,
a short distance into Cornwall

Dartmoor ,
and its rocky tors
many of which are easy to reach from road-site car-parks.

 

Lydford,
north of Tavistock
set up in about AD890 by King Alfred as a defence against the Vikings & Cornish: the village contains St Petrock's Church, Lydford Castle & Lydford Gorge (National Trust).

Morwellham Quay
formerly the industrial
riverside-port for the Town:
15 minutes drive westward from Tavistock

Okehampton
historic market town of West Devon
and called "The Gateway to Cornwall"

Princetown
the location of the famous prison, built to hold French prisoners captured during Britain's 1793-1815 war with Napoleon
and American prisoners of Britain's 1812 war with the USA:
well known from Conan Doyle's "The Hound of the Baskervilles"