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Kingsbridge May 2013

The town formed around a bridge which was built in or before the 10th century between the royal estates of Alvington, to the west, and Chillington, to the east, hence giving it the name of Kyngysbrygge ("King's bridge"). In 1219 the Abbot of Buckfast was granted the right to hold a market there, and by 1238 the settlement had become a borough. The manor remained in possession of the abbot until the Dissolution of the Monasteries, when it was granted to Sir William Petre. Kingsbridge was never represented in Parliament or incorporated by charter, the local government being by a portreeve. It lay within the hundred of Stanborough.

Kingsbridge is in fact a combination of two towns, Kingsbridge and Dodbrooke. Dodbrooke was granted its own market in 1257 and had become a borough by 1319. While Dodbrooke was originally considered to be the dominant of the two, Kingsbridge later expanded to include it.

The whole family came down by car to stay with Sue's father in about 1999, one of the things we did was to take a trip around the Kingsbridge estuary. We had a brief stop in Kingsbridge in 2011, when we stopped for provisions etc. We liked it and when we came back in 2013, we spent an afternoon looking around. When visiting in 2014, Sue and John went of for a proper walk? while I went looking for the Quaker meeting house, and other information about it.