Kingsteignton
Kingsteignton is located within Teignbridge local authority area. Historically it formed part of Teignbridge Hundred. It falls within Moretonhampstead 1 Deanery for ecclesiastical purposes. The Deaneries are used to arrange the typescript Church Notes of B.F.Cresswell which are held in the Westcountry Studies Library. The population was 856 in 1801 1942 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website. In 1641/2 169 adult males signed the Protestation returns.
A parish history file is held in Kingsteignton Library. You can look for other material on the community by using the place search on the main local studies database. Further historical information is also available on the Genuki website.
Maps: The image below is of the Kingsteignton area on Donn's one inch to the mile survey of 1765.
On the County Series Ordnance Survey mapping the area is to be found on 1:2,500 sheet 109/8 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 109NE
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is SX870738. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet SX87SE, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Explorer 031, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 192. Geological sheet 339 also covers the area.
Illustrations: The image below is of Kingsteignton as included in the Library's illustration collection. Other images can be searched for on the local studies catalogue.
Extract from Devon by W.G.Hoskins (1954), included by kind permission of the copyright holder:
KINGSTEIGNTON is a large and unattractive village, with much yellow brick and cold grey limestone, but it has a long history. It was one of the early villages in the Saxon conquest, founded probably c. 700 or shortly afterwards, and was the head of a vast royal estate centred on the Teign estuary. The church (St. Michael) is a spacious building, entirely rebuilt in the 15th century, with a good W. tower of Devonian limestone. The remainder of the church, except the S. porch, is of new red sandstone. The windows and font are excellent. The screen was cut down in 1801 as being "decayed and ruinous," (MacCulloch, The Celtic and Scandinavian Religions, 62,3.) but fourteen panels of the base remain on either side of the chancel, painted with figures of saints and bishops. There are many inscribed floor-slabs, memorials of the 17th century gentry in the parish. Their houses, some of which retain old work, were Ware Barton, Whiteway Barton, Babcombe, Gappah and Bellamarsh. The parish has large modern potteries, based upon the excellent local clay, much of which is exported to other parts of the country.
