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 There
is evidence of people living in the Tiverton area from the Lower
Palaeolithic period which covered the ice age when glaciers advanced
southward across Britain, although we know very little about those
people.
Palaeolithic and Mesolithic worked flints and chert have been discovered
all along the lower Lowman Valley, as well as on the eastern slopes
of the Exe near Bolham and on the higher ground near Chevithorne.
Overlooking the modern town of Tiverton, Cranmore Castle sits conspicuous
near the top of Exeter Hill. This is a well-known landmark which
is sometimes described as a hill fort, although the element ‘fort’
may be misleading. Cranmore consist of a large elliptical area of
28 acres enclosed by a bank which, in many places, has been incorporated
in later hedges. The rampart is impressive on the north, where stock
damage has revealed a stone core. In the 1990’s a metal-detector
revealed a silver coin minted in the first century BC.
A Roman fort was discovered at Bolham in 1978 during a survey in
advance of the building of the North Devon Link Road. A trial trench
revealed pieces of fine pottery used by the Romans. The fort, a
typical Roman rectangular shape with rounded corners, was built
on a slight spur with extensive views up and down the valley of
the Exe and its confluence with the Lowman. From the air, the lines
of the rampart, the ditch, and all the gates, except the east gate,
can be recognised. 
One historic reminder of Tiverton’s past is the 12th Century
doorway on the north side of St Peter’s Church. It is said
that Leofric, Bishop of Exeter, consecrated Saint Peter’s
Church in 1073, although there is no firm evidence to support this
claim.
When the modern day visitor or local person walks the streets of
Tiverton they are entering a town that already had its Newport Street
and Saint Andrew Street in the late 13th Century. A bridge has crossed
the River Exe since 1295, before which you would have needed to
wade across the river.
By the beginning of the 16th century, the cloth trade had become
Tiverton’s main industry, giving work to a large number of
people, including women and children. Many people worked on the
land during the day but spent their evenings at the loom.
All aspects of the trade were carried on in and around Tiverton:
from sorting the raw wool then combing, carding, spinning, weaving,
dyeing, fulling, to packing and transporting the finished cloth.
The importance of the developing cloth trade to Tiverton cannot
be overestimated for it permeated most aspects of daily life.
King James signed the warrant granting Tiverton its Charter of Incorporation
as a Borough on the 10th August 1615. This document is now in the
Devon Records Office. It was to be governed by a corporation comprising
a mayor and 24 burgesses. The corporation was empowered to pass
its own byelaws and summon offenders to court. Tiverton had its
own prison with the Mayor as the keeper.
Official documents would carry a Borough Seal, the design of which
portrayed all the elements that had brought Tiverton to this stage
of its history. The Church, castle and town, with the two rivers
uniting, and a woolpack, all are there.
The first Town Clerk was called Henry Newte. Of those early Councillors
eight were merchants, eight were clothiers, two were yeomen, two
were gentlemen, one was a tanner; but the information about the
other four is unknown.
Whilst the Mayor was elected annually the burgesses were replaced
only at death, or by a  majority
vote of the others. They also had the privilege of choosing the
two Members of Parliament. The burgesses were expected to lead,
rule, and safeguard the town’s citizens from crime, injury
and poverty.
The visitor to Tiverton will notice that there are a great number
of places of worship within the town which possibly led the then
Mayor of the town to make the following comments during the visit
of the famous founder of Methodism John Wesley in August 1750, for
when asked by someone if Methodism should be banished from the town
he replied that with St Peter’s, Saint George’s, the
meeting houses, and open-air preaching, there was already enough
religion in Tiverton, adding ‘if people were not able to go
to heaven by one of these ways then, by God, they would not go there
at all as long as he was Mayor’. Despite the top citizen of
the town’s remarks Methodism arrived in Tiverton in 1752 and
has remained there ever since.
Tiverton has plenty of Public Houses and restaurants, however, in
1779 the Land Tax assessment lists no fewer than 35 public houses
in Tiverton.
Following the Napoleonic Wars a young man from the Midlands with
a genius for invention and the business acumen to exploit it came
to Tiverton. The young man was the 32 year old John Heathcoat who
bought Heathfield and Company’s redundant mill and established
a lace manufactory in the town. He patented a machine for the making
and manufacturing of bobbin lace in 1808. By 1815 his machines were
being licensed throughout the midlands earning him £16,000
a year; a millionaire in today’s world.
Whites Directory of 1851 quotes Tiverton as ‘Formerly a principle
seat of the woollen manufacture, and now noted for its extensive
lace manufactory and its numerous charities…it is considered
one of the healthiest and principal towns in Devon.
Today the town of Tiverton provides a warm welcome to the visitor
and an ideal centre for touring the West Country.
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History of Tiverton
