Tiverton Merchants' Trail 1 of 5 on the history of the Wool Trade

For 250 years – from the 16th to the 18th centuries – Tiverton earned its reputation as the premier cloth-making centre in the west of England. The town had the three necessary ingredients – wool from the hills around, water from the Exe and Lowman and cloth-making expertise. Wool was also brought from Ireland and Wales and thousands of packhorses provided the link with the north Devon coast.

The wool was spun, woven into a loose cloth and then put through a process called fulling where the fibres were scoured by chemicals and shrunk to form a tight cloth. Fulling mills used water-power to drive wooden mallets that beat the cloth which was then hung on tenter hooks in the racking fields in order to stretch and dry. Tiverton was famous for a type of cloth called serge and for the type of garment produced from it – the kersey. They traded cloth through London, Exeter and North Devon to Europe, Africa and America. The merchants became rich and in turn brought wealth and prosperity to Tiverton. Their legacy to the town is remembered through the Merchants’ Trail – a series of five permanently mounted displays in the town linked by a ribbon of pavement medallions. This montage is taken from Panel 1.

GOTHAM HOUSE is Tiverton's only surviving early Georgian merchant's house. It was owned by George Davey (1690-1746), whose family had ships at Topsham. Re-built after the great fire of 1731, its brickwork is exceptional, in a style unusual for Devon. Note especially the Doric pilasters. Nowadays Ashfords Solicitors, it can be seen just off Phoenix Lane.

OLIVER PEARD (1700-64), the 'greatest merchant who ever lived in Tiverton', had a house in Fore Street, on the site of Boots the Chemist. He traded in the cloth known as serge through Topsham to the Netherlands, had fulling mills at Bolham, was twice mayor, ran the Borough Corporation and was Receiver General of the Land Tax for North Devon.

In December 1764 Peard ‘blew his face off with a blunderbuss' right here in Fore Street. He had torn up his will and his fortune passed to his sister Mary and then to their nephew Benjamin Dickinson.

BENJAMIN DICKINSON (1737-1806), though unpopular, was thrice voted mayor. He pulled down his uncle Oliver Peard's old establishment in 1783 and replaced it with a magnificent mansion.
A very successful merchant, when Tiverton's industry declined, he quickly opened the town's first bank near St George's Church in 1788. Soon after, he went bankrupt and retired to his country house at Knightshayes. Eventually both family mansions were demolished.

ST GEORGE’S CHURCH, built in glorious Ham stone, is Devon’s best Georgian church. Work started in 1714 to the design of Wren's pupil, John James, but stopped in 1717, whereupon Oliver Peard stored woollen goods there. The church was completed in 1731 and consecrated in 1733. The 'harmonious interior' has memorials to merchant families who gave money for the church, including Henry Blagdon (1680-1716), Oliver's sister, Mary Peard (1698-1780) and Benjamin Dickinson, all related by marriage.

ANN CLARK's gravestone, on the south wall of St George's Church, commemorates Tiverton’s famous midwife. It says she delivered more than 5000 babies between 1698 and 1733. Many were sons of merchants, Peards and Daveys amongst them.

FORE STREET 1834. This was the main street in Georgian times. The Phoenix Inn was close to this spot . Tiverton's great fire of 1731 gave an opportunity for merchants to re-build mansions on prime sites. Re-development in the 1960s means that few remain.

SUN FIREMARK. By the mid 18th century, many prominent people saw the sense in fire insurance. Oliver Peard's business premises in 1744 were insured with the Sun Company for £5,400. Firemarks like the one in the montage survive around the town and can be seen in Tiverton Museum.

© Copyright of Lifechart 2008

Merchants' Trail was devised, researched and written by Tiverton Civic Society and commissioned by Mid Devon District Council, with Heritage Lottery Funding. Design and production was by Lifechart. Directions and medallions were by local schoolchildren. Full acknowledgments and further information is available at www.tivertoncivicsoc.org.uk.