Kingsteignton

Kingsteignton is a town in Teignbridge, south Devon, at the head of the Teign estuary next to Newton Abbot. It is outside Dartmoor National Park, east of the moor, though the clay it is known for was laid down by streams running off Dartmoor into the Bovey Basin. The 2011 census gave the combined wards about 11,100 people. It changed from a parish council to a town council on 1 January 2009.

The History Society says the place began in the early 8th century as the centre of a large Saxon estate, and that Danish raiders plundered it in 1001. St Michael's church was rebuilt in the 15th century, with an 85 foot tower finished in the 1480s. Ball clay was dug here from the 17th century, with the first cargo shipped from Kingsteignton through Teignmouth in 1729. The Stover Canal, begun by James Templer in 1790, was built between 1790 and 1792 to carry clay. The Old Toll House at the Chudleigh Road crossroads is Grade II listed and thought to date from 1824.

The Ram Roasting fair is held on the late May bank holiday, formerly Whit Tuesday. The legend is that a ram was sacrificed after a drought dried a spring. Nobody knows when it began. In 1947 rationing meant a deer from the Ugbrooke estate was roasted instead, and the story reached Time magazine.