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{{Infobox UK place
|static_image=[[File:Plympton St Maurice - geograph.org.uk - 66678.jpg|250px]]
|static_image_caption= Looking down on part of the town from the castle
|country= England
|official_name= Plympton
|latitude= 50.386
|longitude= -4.051
| population = 29,899
| population_ref = ([[United Kingdom Census 2011|2011 Census]])
|shire_district=
|shire_county= [[Devon]]
|region= South West England
|constituency_westminster=[[South West Devon (UK Parliament constituency)|South West Devon]]
|post_town= PLYMOUTH
|postcode_district= PL7
|postcode_area= PL
|dial_code= 01752
|os_grid_reference= SX542561
}}
'''Plympton''', or '''Plympton Maurice''' or '''Plympton St Maurice''' or '''Plympton St Mary''' or '''Plympton Erle''', in south-western [[Devon]], is a populous, north-eastern suburb of the city of [[Plymouth]] of which it officially became part, along with [[Plymstock]], in 1967. It was an ancient [[stannary town]]: an important trading centre in the past for locally mined [[tin]], and a former seaport (before the [[River Plym]] silted up and trade moved down the river to [[Plymouth]]).
Plympton still has its own town centre (called the Ridgeway), and is itself an amalgamation of several villages, including St Mary's, St Maurice, Colebrook, Woodford, [[Newnham, Plympton St Mary|Newnham]], Langage and Chaddlewood.
==Toponymy==
Although the name of the town appears to be derived from its location on the [[River Plym]] (compare, for instance, [[Otterton]] or [[Yealmpton]]), this is not considered to be the case. As J. Brooking Rowe pointed out in 1906, the town is not and never was sited on the river.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.archive.org/details/ahistoryborough00rowegoog
|author=J. Brooking Rowe
|title=A History of the Borough of Plympton Erle: the Castle and Manor of Plympton... (Internet Archive)
|page=5
|year=1906
|publisher=James G. Commin, Exeter
|accessdate=2011-04-04}}</ref> The earliest surviving documentary reference to the place is as ''Plymentun'' in Anglo-Saxon charter [[Peter Hayes Sawyer|S380]] dated to around 900 AD,<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://ascharters.net/charters/380
|title=Anglo-Saxon Charters
|publisher=ascharters.net
|accessdate=2011-04-04}}</ref> and this name may be derived from the [[Old English]] adjective ''plymen'', meaning "growing with plum-trees". So ''Plympton'' would have the meaning "Plum-tree farm".<ref name=CDEP/> The local civic association, however, suggests an alternative derivation from the Celtic ''Pen-lyn-dun'' ("fort at the head of a creek").<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.plymptonstmaurice.co.uk/castle.htm
|title=Plympton Castle
|publisher=Plympton St Maurice Civic Association
|accessdate=2012-12-02}}</ref> Alternatively, Cornish derivations also give ''ploumenn'' meaning 'plum' and ''plo(b)m'' meaning 'lead' - possibly related to Latin ''plombum album'' ( 'British lead') or [[tin]].<ref>The ancient language and the dialect of Cornwall , Fred W.P.Jago, 1882, Truro</ref>
By the early 13th century, the River Plym was named from a [[back-formation]] from this name and nearby [[Plymstock]].<ref name=CDEP>{{cite book
|title=The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-names
|last=Watts|first=Victor
|publisher=Cambridge University Press
|edition=1st paperback|year=2010
|pages=475–6|isbn=978-0-521-16855-7}}</ref> This later led to the naming of the fishing port created at the river's mouth (Plymouth, originally named Sutton) when the river estuary silted up too much for the monks to sail up river to Plympton any longer.
==History==
Near Plympton is the [[Iron Age]] hill fort of [[Boringdon Camp]].
===Domesday Book===
Plympton is listed in the [[Domesday Book]] of 1086 as follows:
<blockquote>”The [[William the conqueror|King]] holds Plympton. TRE<ref>TRE in [[Latin]] is ''Tempore Regis Edwardi'', i.e. "in the time of King [[Edward the Confessor]]" before the [[Battle of Hastings]]</ref> it paid [[wikt:geld|geld]] for two and a half hides. There is land for 20 [[ploughs]]. In [[wikt:demesne|demesne]] are two ploughs and six slaves and 5 [[wikt:villein|villans]] and 12 [[wikt:bordar|bordars]] with 12 ploughs. There are {{convert|6|acre|m2}} of meadow and {{convert|20|acre|m2}} of pasture, woodland one league long and a half broad. It renders £13 10s by weight. Beside this land the [[Canon (priest)|canon]]s of the same manor hold 2 hides. There is land for 6 ploughs. There 12 v have 4 ploughs. It is worth 35 shillings.<ref name = "Domesday">''Domesday Book: a complete transliteration''. London: Penguin, 2003. ISBN 0-14-143994-7 p.279</ref><br/>
</blockquote>
===Plympton Priory===
Plympton was the site of an important priory founded by [[William Warelwast]] in the early 12th century. The members were [[Augustinian]] canons and the priory soon became the second richest monastic house in Devon (after Tavistock). The gatehouse of the priory is still in existence. In 1872 it was recorded that the gatehouse, kitchen and refectory were still in good condition.<ref name=Pev>Pevsner, N. (1952) ''South Devon''. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books; pp. 242–45</ref>
===Plympton Castle===
[[File:Plympton Castle - geograph.org.uk - 103022.jpg|thumb|left|Plympton's motte and bailey castle]]
[[Richard de Redvers]] (d.1107) was granted the [[feudal barony of Plympton]], with ''[[caput]]'' at Plympton Castle, by King [[Henry I of England|Henry I]] (1100-1135), of which king he was a most trusted supporter. His family later became [[Earl of Devon|Earls of Devon]]. Their lands, including Plympton, and titles were later inherited by the [[Earl of Devon|Courtenay family]], [[feudal baron of Okehampton|feudal barons of Okehampton]]. The ancient [[Stannary]] town remains dominated by its now ruined [[Norman architecture|Norman]] [[motte-and-bailey castle]] and it still retains a cohesive medieval street pattern. A number of historic buildings in the local [[vernacular]] style of green Devon slate, limestone and lime-washed walls, with Dartmoor granite detailing, attest to all periods of its history.
===Rotten Borough===
The town was one of the [[rotten borough]]s, and [[Plympton Erle (UK Parliament constituency)|sent two MPs]] to the [[unreformed House of Commons]] before the [[Reform Act 1832]] stripped it of its representation.
===Birthplace of Joshua Reynolds===
[[File:Joshua Reynolds Self Portrait.jpg||thumb|right|upright|Sir Joshua Reynolds in a [[self-portrait]]]]
The town was the birthplace and early residence of the painter Sir [[Sir Joshua Reynolds|Joshua Reynolds]]. Reynolds was [[Mayor]] of Plympton, as well as first president of the [[Royal Academy of Art]]. His father was headmaster of [[Plympton Grammar School]] which itself is an attractive historic building in the centre of the town. Former pupils were [[Benjamin Haydon]] and Sir [[Charles Eastlake|Charles Lock Eastlake]], PRA, who were respectively first director of the [[National Gallery (London)|National Gallery]] and first president of the [[Royal Photographic Society]]. Many of Reynold's paintings were purchased by his friends the Parker family of local [[Saltram House]], now owned by the National Trust, and are still on public display there.
==Historic estates==
The present parish encompasses the historic former parishes:
*Plympton St Maurice
*Colebrook, in which is the manor of [[Boringdon Hall|Boringdon]], a seat of the Parker family formerly of [[North Molton]], which later acquired [[Saltram]]. Adjacent is the Iron-Age hill-fort [[Boringdon Camp]].
*Woodford
*Plympton St Mary, which contains:
**[[Loughtor]] (after c.1718 renamed [[Newnham Park]]), the seat of William II Selman, 5 times MP for Plympton Erle between 1420 and 1429. The lords of the borough of Plympton Erle were the Courtenays, with whom Selman must therefore have had a connection. <ref>http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/selman-william-ii</ref> It was later a minor seat of a cadet branch of the Courtenay family, [[English feudal barony|feudal barons]] of Plympton and [[Okehampton]] and [[Earl of Devon|Earls of Devon]] which was the inheritance of a younger son, Sir Philip Courtenay of Molland (d.1488), MP, [[High Sheriff of Devon|Sheriff of Devon]] in 1470–71. He was the second son of [[Philip Courtenay (died 1463)|Sir Philip Courtenay]] (died 1463) of [[Powderham Castle|Powderham]] (a descendant of [[Hugh Courtenay, 2nd Earl of Devon]] (d.1377) by his wife Elizabeth Hungerford. He was given by his parents the Hungerford manor of Molland and established there his own branch of the family. He married Elizabeth (d.1482), whose parentage is not recorded in surviving records, the widow of William Hyndeston of Wonwall<ref name="Vivian p.246">Vivian, Heraldic Visitations of Devon, p.246, pedigree of Courtenay of Molland</ref> in the parish of [[Kingston, Devon|Kingston]], Devon. Sir Philip's 3rd son was William Courtenay of Loughtor, whose son Sir Philip Courtenay of Loughtor died without issue.<ref name="Vivian p.246"/> The effigy of William Courtenay of Loughtor exists in Plympton St Mary Church, south chancel aisle.<ref>Pevsner & Cherry, Buildings of England: Devon, 2004, p.685</ref> Sir Philip Courtenay of Molland's second son and William's brother, was Philip Courtenay who married Jane Fowell, daughter of Richard Fowell of Fowelscombe.<ref>Vivian, Heraldic Visitations of Deon, p.369, pedigree of Fowell</ref> Their only daughter and the heiress of Loughtor was Elizabeth Courtenay, who married her neighbour William Strode (d.1579) of [[Newnham, Plympton St Mary]].<ref>Vivian, Heraldic Visitations of Deon, p.718, pedigree of Strode</ref> Loughtor thus descended into the Strode family, which in the late 18th century abandoned its old adjoining seat of Newnham, with its mediaeval house, to build a new principal seat at Loughtor called [[Newnham Park]]. Loughtor was also the seat of the Selman family, members of which were several times [[Member of Parliament|Members of Parliament]] for [[Plympton Erle (UK Parliament constituency)|Plympton Erle]].
[[File:UrsulaStrodeArmsBishopsTawton.JPG|thumb|200px|Arms of Strode: ''Argent, a chevron between three conies courant sable'', detail from mural monument to Ursula Strode (d.1635), 1st wife of Sir [[John Chichester (d.1669)|John III Chichester]] (d.1669) of [[Hall, Bishop's Tawton|Hall]] and daughter of Sir William II Strode (d.1637). [[Bishop's Tawton]] Church]]
**[[Newnham (Old)|Newnham]], which manor was long the seat of the Strode family,<ref>Vivian, Heralds' Visitations of Devon, 1895, pp.718–20, pedigree of Strode</ref> whose monuments exist in Plympton St Mary's Church, including the tomb-chest of Richard Strode (d.1464), the effigy of which is clad in armour. The monument of [[William Strode (died 1637)|William II Strode]] (d.1637) and his family shows husband, two wives and ten children. The monument to his daughter Ursula Strode, the wife of Sir John III Chichester of [[Hall, Bishop's Tawton|Hall]], exists in [[Bishop's Tawton]] Church. A notable member of this family and William II Strode's second son was the parliamentarian Sir [[William Strode]] (1594–1645), one of the [[Five Members]] whom King Charles I attempted to arrest in the [[House of Commons of England|House of Commons]] in 1642. The descent of the family is as follows:<ref>Vivian, Heralds' Visitations of Devon, 1895, pp.718–19</ref>
***Richard I Strode (d.1464), married Margaret Fortescue, daughter of Henry Fortescue of Wood. His eldest son William Strode (d.1518) died without progeny.
***Richard II Strode (2nd son), married Joan Pennalls, daughter of Ellis Pennalls of Plympton.
***Richard III Strode (d.1552) (son), married Agnes Milliton, daughter of John Milliton of Meavy.
***William I Strode (d.1579) (son), married Elizabeth Courtenay, daughter of Philip Courtenay, a younger son of Sir Philip Courtenay (d.1488) of [[Molland]].<ref>Vivian, Heralds' Visitations of Devon, 1895, p.251 & 718</ref>
***[[Richard Strode (died 1581)|Richard IV Strode]] (d.1581) (son), married Frances Cromwell.
***[[William Strode (died 1637)|William II Strode]] (d.1637) (son), MP
***[[Richard Strode (died 1669)|Richard V Strode]] (d.1669) (son), MP
***[[William Strode (died 1676)|William III Strode]] (d.1676) (son), MP
*Langage
*Chaddlewood
==Railway==
Railway facilities were originally provided at Plympton—for goods traffic only—by the horse-drawn [[Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway]], but their branch was closed and sold to the [[South Devon Railway Company|South Devon Railway]] to allow them to build a line from [[Exeter]] to [[Plymouth]]. [[Plympton railway station|A station]] was opened in the town on 15 June 1848. From 1 June 1904 it was the eastern terminus for enhanced Plymouth area suburban services but it was closed from 3 March 1959.
==Churches==
===St Maurice===
The churches are St Maurice (or rather the Church of St Thomas at Plympton St Maurice) of Norman origin.The only remarkable feature is the tower which was rebuilt in the middle of the 15th century.
===St Mary===
St Mary's church was dedicated in 1311 and was originally a parish chapel attached to Plympton Priory and is a church of more importance.It has two aisles on each side of the nave,the outer aisles being shorter than the inner ones.The lofty tower is of granite ashlar and visible from afar.The south porch is ornamented with carving and has a lierne vault. The outer north aisle is the earliest part of the church and the rest is mainly of the 15th century, the south aisle being the latest part.There are interesting monuments to the family of Strode, including a tomb-chest for Richard Strode (d.1464),the effigy being clad in armour.The monument of William Strode (d. 1637)and his family shows husband,two wives and ten children.There is also a monument of W.Seymour (d. 1801) in Coade stone and of Viscount Boringdon, the 11-year-old heir to the Earl of Morley of Saltram House who died in Paris in 1817,by François-Nicolas Delaistre.
==Modern Plympton==
Between about 1990 and 2010 Plympton has seen considerable growth as the suburban population of [[Plymouth]] has doubled. To help manage this rapid growth more efficiently, Plympton has been separated into a series of separate districts: Yealmpstone, Plympton-St Maurice, Colebrook, Underwood, Woodford and Chaddlewood.
===Schools===
Plympton has two state secondary schools serving pupils from ages 11–18. Both [[Ridgeway School, Plympton|Ridgeway School]] and [[Hele's School]] attract students from the Plympton area and surrounding areas of Laira, Ivybridge and Dartmoor.
===New Town proposal===
A new town to be called [[Sherford]] is proposed to be built adjacent to Plympton. This development is expected to consist of "at least 4,000 dwellings by 2016".<ref name="sf">[http://www.southhams.gov.uk/sherford_aap_adopted_august07-2.pdf Sherford Area Action Plan (August 2007)], p.5, section 1.14</ref>
===Public transport===
Plympton has four main bus services: routes 20, 20a, 21 and 21a.
The [[Plym Valley Railway]] is a preserved railway based at the reconstructed Marsh Mills station on Coypool Road. This was formerly part of the GWR Plymouth to Launceston branch line. The volunteer-run PVR is actively rebuilding the line between Marsh Mills and Plymbridge. Steam and diesel heritage trains run on numerous Sundays throughout the year.
Plymouth City Council has stated it would like to see a rail station reopened on the London main line running through the middle of Plympton, which would provide quick and frequent trains into Plymouth. But there are major obstacles to providing such a service on a primarily inter-regional rail route, shown when Ivybridge - on the same line - got a new station in 1994.
==Notable residents==
* [[Elizabeth Johnson (pamphleteer)|Elizabeth Johnson]], religious pamphleteer, born in Plympton
* [[Ellen Marriage]], pioneer [[Honoré de Balzac|Balzac]] translator, and her husband [[Fydell Edmund Garrett|Edmund Garrett]], an [[Henrik Ibsen|Ibsen]] translator, lived here up to Garrett's death in 1907.<ref>Margaret Lesser: Marriage, Ellen (1865–1946). In: ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, May 2010). [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/98379.] Subscription required. Retrieved 23 August 2010.</ref>
* [[David Owen]], former Foreign Secretary, born in Plympton
* Sir [[Joshua Reynolds]], painter, born in Plympton
* [[Edwin Sandys (American colonist)|Sir Edwin Sandys]], founded the colony of [[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown]], was an MP for Plympton
* [[Richard Strode (c. 1480–1522)|Richard Strode]], MP for Plympton, established [[Parliamentary privilege]]
* [[William Warelwast]], buried here (in the priory)
* [[Paul Rogers (actor)|Paul Rogers]], actor, born in Plympton
==See also==
*[[Boringdon Hall]]
==References==
{{Reflist|2}}
==External links==
{{commons category|Plympton}}
*{{dmoz|/Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/England/Devon/Plympton/}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20121208062946/http://plymouthdata.info/Plympton%20Priory.htm The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History – Plympton Priory]
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2011}}
[[Category:Suburbs of Plymouth]]
[[Category:Former towns in Devon]]
[[Category:Former manors in Devon]]
{{usedwps}}