Cockington

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Map sources for Cockington at grid reference SX8963

Cockington is a village in Torquay, Devon. It is a picturesque village, with Edwardian cottages dotted within its parameters. It is about a half a mile away from the main Torquay town.

1 Buildings
2 History
3 Peoples of note associated with the village
4 External links

[edit] Buildings

There are four buildings of note in Cockington.

[edit] Cricket-House and grounds

The park which is now home to the cricket grounds was originally a deer park during medieval times. Cricket started to be played on it at about the start of the 1900s. The current cricket house was built after the original burnt down ten years ago.

[edit] Drum Inn

The Drum Inn is the local pub/restaurant in Cockington. It was built in the 1920s, to replace the old ale-house, by famous architect Lutyens.

[edit] The Almshouses

The Almshouses consist of seven terraced cottages, built in the Elizabethan period by the Cary family to house the poor and those who could not work within the village. When the Mallock family took over the Cockington estate, they fell into disrepair, and it wasn't until the 1840s that it was rebuilt and moved, stone by stone, to the place that they are now.

[edit] Cockington Court

The current court was built over the remains of a Medieval court. A far cry from the days of the Cary family, when it was an actual court, it is now a building filled with various arts and crafts workshops.

[edit] Other buildings

A church that was built in the 1800s;
a water mill that is in the middle of the village;
a forge that has been in the same place in the village for 500 years.

[edit] History

The village was probably founded 2,500 years ago in the Iron Age, with evidence of two hill forts on either side of Cockington valley. Little is known about Cockington, from that point up until the remains of a small Saxon village were found near the Drum Inn. The evidence from this village shows that it was primarily a fishing and farming village. The first official documentation of the village was in the 10th century, declaring that the village was an estate belonging to the Cockington family, who owned the estate from 1078 to 1348. They then sold it onto the Cary family in 1348, who then sold it to the Mallock family in 1645, a family of rich silversmiths from Exeter. The Mallock family then sold the estate to the Torquay Corporation, in 1931.