Explore the coastal town of Teignmouth

There’s been a settlement here since the early 11th century. First it was a market town and then by the 14th century it had developed into an important port second only to Dartmouth.

During the 17th century Teignmouth ships were attacked by Dunkirkers, who operated as privateers from Flemish ports, so it is not surprising that smuggling was an important industry in the area at this time.

As with many south-coast towns, the 17th century saw the start of tourism and very soon the little town at the mouth of the river became a respectable ‘watering hole’ and in the 1820s the first bridge across the estuary to Shaldon was built, and with the arrival of the railway in 1846 trade expanded and the pier was built between 1865-67.

Little Teignmouth did not escape the wars. Over 175 men from the town lost their lives in World War I and during World War II the place was bombed 21 times. 79 people were killed.

Tucked away from the main tourist area at the mouth of the river is Teignmouth port which is still important today for the handling of the local china clay, timber and grain. The first quay was established to deal with the granite from the quarries on Dartmoor and the clay from Newton Abbot brought to the area via the Stover Canal. Little Teignmouth has an important claim to fame with our Capital city because the granite transported from the port was used to build the New London Bridge across the Thames.

Until the building of the Shaldon Bridge the journey to Teignmouth took a much less direct route. Visitors had to travel up the length of the River Teign to a suitable crossing place before travelling all the way down the other side to get to Teignmouth itself. Finally, in 1827 the Shaldon Bridge opened. It was an impressive wooden structure with 34 arches spanning 1,671 ft and at the time was the longest wooden bridge in England. The Teignmouth end had a swing-bridge built in so that ships could pass up the river. Because of the great expense of building the structure it was decided to make people pay to cross over so small toll-houses were built at either end, the Teignmouth toll-house is still in place at the end of the bridge.

Disaster struck the bridge after only eleven years when some of the centre arches collapsed. The bridge was rebuilt and re-opened in 1840, but the curse of the bridge continued and in 1893 it partially collapsed again. Between 1927 and 1931 the bridge was completely rebuilt in stone. The tolls were abolished in 1948 and in the most recent work on it was strengthening and widening of the bridge to cope with the pressure of 21st century traffic. Did the curse strike again? There were immediate complaints that the bridge had started to 'sing' whenever the wind blew!

A family-friendly resort, Teignmouth has a combination of elegant hotels and the traditional bed and breakfast guest houses, the local council have recently installed a large children’s play-park on the seafront and there is the usual arcades and rides on the pier.

For such a little-known town Teignmouth has some famous claims to fame. The poet John Keats spent several weeks in Teignmouth and completed his poem ‘Endymion’ here, though he was not very impressed with the weather or Devon, he told a friend that “ it is a splashy, rainy, misty, snowy, foggy, haily, floody, muddy, slipshod county.”

Charles Babbage the mathematician and inventor of the computer lived here for some years and the town was featured in the 1966 Norman Wisdom film ‘Press for Time’. However, for young people of the world Teignmouth is most famous as being the hometown of all of the band members of the rock band Muse. It was here that they started their band and performed two homecoming shows in the town in September 2009.

If you look east towards the cliffs at the end of Teignmouth beach you will see a small stack of rock standing alone in the sea. Until fairly recently there were two taller stacks known locally as the Parson and the Clerk. Legend says that they are the Bishop of Exeter and one of his priests who were turned to stone by the Devil. However, during very bad winter storms one of the stacks was demolished by the sea and the other was reduced in height.