Crediton

Crediton is a market town in Mid Devon, in the valley of the River Creedy, 7 miles north-west of Exeter. It is outside Dartmoor National Park, north of the moor. The 2021 census counted 8,304 people. Locals sometimes call it Kirton.

St Boniface, born Winfrith, is traditionally from here. Sources give his birth as c. 672 or 680, and a monastery is linked to him in 739. Crediton was the seat of the Devon bishopric from 909 until 1050, when it moved to Exeter, and the church then became a collegiate foundation. The present Church of the Holy Cross was completed in 1410. A weekly market was granted in 1231, and a three day St Lawrence Fair was held on St Lawrence Green. Boniface was named patron saint of Devon in 2019.

Serge cloth made the town wealthy, and in the early 16th century it ranked among the 50 wealthiest in England. The almshouses in Park Street date from 1555, and the Free Grammar School was endowed in 1572. Fires in 1743, 1766, 1769 and 1772 destroyed hundreds of houses. The 1743 fire, on 14 August, killed 16 people and destroyed about 450 houses. The market moved from the High Street in 1836. The railway station, designed by Brunel, opened in 1851, and Ernest Jackson and Company has made pastilles in the High Street since 1817.