Portal:Devon

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The Devon Portal

Devon (/ˈdɛvən/ DEV-ən; historically also known as Devonshire /-ʃɪər, -ʃər/ -⁠sheer, -⁠shər) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west. The city of Plymouth is the largest settlement, and the city of Exeter is the county town.

Devon has a varied geography. It contains Dartmoor and part of Exmoor, two upland moors which are the source of most of the county's rivers, including the Taw, Dart, and Exe. The longest river in the county is the Tamar, which forms most of the border with Cornwall and rises in the Devon's northwest hills. The southeast coast is part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, and characterised by tall cliffs which reveal the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous geology of the region. The county gives its name to the Devonian geologic period, which includes the slates and sandstones of the north coast. Dartmoor and Exmoor have been designated national parks, and the county also contains, in whole or in part, five national landscapes.

In the Iron Age, Roman and the Sub-Roman periods, the county was the home of the Dumnonii Celtic Britons. The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain resulted in the partial assimilation of Dumnonia into the kingdom of Wessex in the eighth and ninth centuries, and the western boundary with Cornwall was set at the Tamar by king Æthelstan in 936. (Full article...)

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Robert Falcon Scott in 1905

Captain Robert Falcon Scott CVO (6 June 1868 – c. 29 March 1912) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery expedition of 1901–04 and the Terra Nova expedition of 1910–13.

On the first expedition, he set a new southern record by marching to latitude 82°S and discovered the Antarctic Plateau, on which the South Pole is located. On the second venture, Scott led a party of five which reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, less than five weeks after Amundsen's South Pole expedition. A planned meeting with supporting dog teams from the base camp failed, despite Scott's written instructions, and at a distance of 162 miles (261 km) from their base camp at Hut Point and approximately 12.5 miles (20.1 km) from the next depot, Scott and his companions died. When Scott and his party's bodies were discovered, they had in their possession the first Antarctic fossils discovered. The fossils were determined to be from the Glossopteris tree and proved that Antarctica was once forested and joined to other continents.

Before his appointment to lead the Discovery expedition, Scott had a career as a Royal Navy officer. In 1899, he had a chance encounter with Sir Clements Markham, the president of the Royal Geographical Society, and learned of a planned Antarctic expedition, which he soon volunteered to lead. His name became inseparably associated with the Antarctic, the field of work to which he remained committed during the final 12 years of his life.

Following the news of his death, Scott became a celebrated hero, a status reflected by memorials erected across the UK. However, in the last decades of the 20th century, questions were raised about his competence and character. Commentators in the 21st century have regarded Scott more positively after assessing the temperature drop below −40 °C (−40 °F) in March 1912, and after re-discovering Scott's written orders of October 1911, in which he had instructed the dog teams to meet and assist him on the return trip. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various Devon-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The Mayflower Steps Memorial (from Plymouth)
Image 2HMNB Devonport – the largest operational naval base in Western Europe. (from Plymouth)
Image 3The Roman Catholic Cathedral Church of Saint Mary and Saint Boniface (Stonehouse, Plymouth) (from Plymouth)
Image 4Civic Centre, completed 1962, symbolic of the Post War 'Heroic Modernism' of the Welfare State; a listed building since 2007 (from Plymouth)
Image 5Population pyramid of Exeter (district) in 2021 (from Exeter)
Image 6Heathland at Woodbury Common in south east Devon (from Devon)
Image 7An illustration of Exeter in 1563, entitled Civitas Exoniae (vulgo Excester) urbs primaria in comitatu Devoniae (from Exeter)
Image 8The Parade, Barbican (from Plymouth)
Image 9Interior of the Drake Circus Shopping Centre in 2006 (from Plymouth)
Image 10Watercolour by Olive Wharry circa 1942 of St. Sidwell's Church, Exeter, after the Blitz. In the early hours of 4th May 1942 a 250kg bomb fell directly on St Sidwells. The church tower was left standing but was so badly damaged that it was pulled down shortly after. A replacement church was built on the site. From the Royal Albert Memorial Museum's collection (63/2004/4). (from Exeter)
Image 11Inter-city trains at Plymouth station, operated by Great Western Railway (from Plymouth)
Image 12Exe Flood Relief Channel built after the floods of 1960 (from Exeter)
Image 13The Roland Levinsky Building – Faculty of Arts of the University of Plymouth (from Plymouth)
Image 14The beach at Westward Ho!, North Devon, looking north towards the shared estuary of the rivers Taw and Torridge (from Devon)
Image 15Plymouth Drake's Island (1860s-1880s) by Francis Frith (from Plymouth)
Image 16Princesshay Shopping Centre with Exeter Cathedral in the background (from Exeter)
Image 17The River Exe (from Exeter)
Image 18Siege of Plymouth, 1643 (from Plymouth)
Image 19Plymouth the Promenade Pier (postcard c1925) by A. R. Quinton (from Plymouth)
Image 20Plymouth Pavilions, home to the Plymouth City Patriots. (from Plymouth)
Image 21Piazza Terracina, Exeter, named after Terracina, Italy (from Exeter)
$Image 22Ilfracombe, on the coast of North Devon (from Devon)$

Image 22Ilfracombe, on the coast of North Devon (from Devon)
Image 23The Higher Market, Exeter, in 1943; at this time the larger firms such as Mac Fisheries had joined the smaller shopkeepers' stalls in the market, which, before the war, along with neighbouring Goldsmith Street, was earmarked for demolition; a new Civic Centre was to be built on the site. (from Exeter)
Image 24The High Street ca. 1895 (from Exeter)
Image 25The Exeter Riddle Sculpture in Exeter High Street, created by artist Michael Fairfax and installed in 2005 (from Exeter)
Image 26County Hall, Exeter. Headquarters for Devon County Council. (from Devon)
Image 27The Great Hall in the Guildhall (from Plymouth)
Image 28Agatha Christie, best selling crime novelist (from Devon)
Image 29Grade I listed Town Hall, Column and Library in Devonport (from Plymouth)
Image 30Oil on canvas painting by an unknown artist c.1870. These houses were later demolished to make way for St Edmund's Church. The painting depicts the edge of the River Exe flowing under three arches of the Old Exe Bridge, with houses on the bridge and on the river bank, St Edmund's Church can be seen in the top left. (from Exeter)
Image 31Naval War Memorial (from Plymouth)
Image 32A portion of Exeter's city wall, formed of both Roman and medieval stones (from Exeter)
Image 33Prysten House, Finewell Street, 1498, is the oldest surviving house in Plymouth, and built from local Plymouth Limestone and Dartmoor granite (from Plymouth)
Image 34Torquay sea front during Storm Emma – March 2018 (from Devon)
Image 35The gatehouse of Rougemont Castle (from Exeter)
Image 36Plymouth the Hoe (postcard c1920) by A.R. Quinton (from Plymouth)
Image 37John Lewis Building (right), adjacent to Waterstones (left) in the busy high street (from Exeter)
Image 38John Foulston's Town Hall, Column and Library in Devonport (from Plymouth)
Image 39The Plymouth Combined Crown and County Court Centre (from Plymouth)
Image 40Charter map of Sutton harbour and Plymouth in 1540 (from Plymouth)
Image 41The New Palace Theatre in 2008 (from Plymouth)
Image 42John Rocque's 1744 map of Exeter (from Exeter)
Image 43Lamp standard from the 1905 Exe bridge, installed at Butts Ferry, on Exeter Quayside, in 1983 (from Exeter)
Image 44St Michael's Church and Episcopal Building (from Exeter)
Image 45The flag of the historic county of Devon (from Devon)
Image 46Ponies grazing on Exmoor near Brendon, North Devon (from Devon)
Image 47Elliot Terrace, Plymouth Hoe (from Plymouth)
Image 48Geological map of Wales & Southwest England (from Devon)
Image 49Black-eyed Sue and Sweet Poll of Plymouth mourning their lovers, who are soon to be transported to Botany Bay, 1792 (from Plymouth)
Image 50Saltram House remodelled by the architect Robert Adam (from Plymouth)
Image 51Northeastward view of Plymouth Sound from Mount Edgcumbe Country Park in Cornwall, with Drake's Island (centre) and, behind it from left to right, the Royal Citadel, the fuel tanks of Cattedown, and Mount Batten; in the background, the hills of Dartmoor. (from Plymouth)
Image 52Menhir at Drizzlecombe (from Devon)
Image 53St David's Church, Exeter (from Exeter)
Image 54Plymouth Sound and Breakwater (from Plymouth)
Image 55Remains of the medieval Exe Bridge, built around 1200 (from Exeter)
Image 56Beckley Point (from Plymouth)
Image 57Home Park (from Plymouth)
Image 58MV Pont-Aven: Brittany Ferries service to Roscoff, France and Santander, Spain in Millbay Docks (from Plymouth)
Image 59Barnfield Theatre (from Exeter)
Image 60Sir Francis Drake (from Plymouth)
Image 61Part of the seafront of Torquay, south Devon, at high tide (from Devon)
Image 62Royal William Victualling Yard, Stonehouse by Sir John Rennie,1825–33. (from Plymouth)
Image 63The coat of arms of Devon County Council (from Devon)
Image 64The Exeter Law Courts (from Exeter)
Image 65Exeter Guildhall, which dates from 1470 (from Exeter)
Image 66Exeter International Airport (from Exeter)
Image 67The Devonport Leat on Dartmoor looking up stream (from Plymouth)
Image 68Chris Martin, lead singer of Coldplay (from Devon)
Image 69Smeaton's Tower (from Plymouth)
Image 70Cliffs in Devon (from Devon)
Image 71Frontispiece to Shapter's "History of the Cholera in Exeter in 1832" (from Exeter)
Image 72Armada Way looking north (from Plymouth)
Image 73Laver Building, University of Exeter (from Exeter)
Image 74Exeter Civic Centre (from Exeter)
Image 75Roger Deakins, cinematographer (from Devon)
Image 76The Cathedral Green after a rare snowfall (from Exeter)
Image 77the 'Invincible' Spanish Armada, 1588 (from Plymouth)
Image 78"The House That Moved", West Street, Exeter (from Exeter)
Image 79The inner harbour, Brixham, south Devon, at low tide (from Devon)
Image 80Plymouth (1860s-1880s) by Francis Frith (from Plymouth)
Image 81National Armada memorial (Britannia) (from Plymouth)
Image 82Bridge carrying the M5 motorway across the River Exe (from Exeter)
Image 83Exeter St Davids Railway Station (from Exeter)
Image 84Unloading mail by hand from the Sir Francis Drake at Millbay Docks, March 1926 (from Plymouth)
Image 85Exeter Cathedral and the Devon County War Memorial (from Exeter)
Image 86Exeter Canal Basin (from Exeter)
Image 87Population pyramid of Plymouth (unitary authority) in 2021 (from Plymouth)

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Little Trowlesworthy Tor on Lee Moor, near Cadover Bridge.

Recently featured: Bigbury sea tractor - Crazywell cross - South Devon Cattle - Dartmoor tors – Plymouth harbour – Westward Ho! beach

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Some of the larger settlements of Devon

See List of places in Devon for more information

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Did you know...

... that Plymouth's lighthouse, Smeaton's Tower (pictured), was dismantled and then rebuilt on Plymouth Hoe as a memorial?
... that Devon is the third largest of the English counties and has a population of 1,109,900?
... that the name Devon derives from the name of the Celtic people who inhabited the southwestern peninsula of Britain at the time of the Roman invasion?
... that Devon was one of the first areas of England settled following the end of the last ice age?
... that the St Nicholas Priory in Exeter is being restored with the same methods that were used 500 years ago?
... that Devon is the only county in England to have two separate coastlines?
... that there was no established coat of arms for Devon until 1926?
... that the English Riviera Geopark in Torbay is the world's only urban Geopark?

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Economy and industry of Devon • Flag of Devon • History of Devon • Notable people from Devon

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v t e Ceremonial county of Devon
Devon Portal
Unitary authorities	Plymouth Torbay
Boroughs or districts	East Devon Exeter Mid Devon North Devon South Hams Teignbridge Torridge West Devon
Major settlements (cities in italics)	Ashburton Axminster Bampton Barnstaple Bideford Bovey Tracey Brixham Buckfastleigh Budleigh Salterton Chagford Chudleigh Chulmleigh Colyton Crediton Cullompton Dartmouth Dawlish Exeter Exmouth Great Torrington Hatherleigh Holsworthy Honiton Ilfracombe Ivybridge Kingsbridge Kingsteignton Lynton Moretonhampstead Newton Abbot North Tawton Northam Okehampton Ottery St Mary Paignton Plymouth Plympton Plymstock Salcombe Seaton Sidmouth South Molton Tavistock Teignmouth Tiverton Topsham Torquay Totnes See also: List of civil parishes in Devon
Rivers	Ashburn Avon Axe Barle Bovey Bray Burn Clyst Creedy Culm Dart East Dart West Dart Erme Exe Heddon Lemon Lew Lumburn Lyd East Lyn West Lyn Meavy Mole Okement East Okement West Okement Otter Plym Sid Swincombe Tamar Tavy Taw Teign Thrushel Torridge Walkham Wallabrooke East Webburn West Webburn Wolf Yealm
Topics	Flag Devon County Council Parliamentary constituencies Economy Places Towns by population SSSIs Country houses Grade I listed buildings Grade II* listed buildings Scheduled monuments Bridges History Schools Museums Lord Lieutenants High Sheriffs Notable people Dartmoor Exmoor South Devon AONB Tamar Valley AONB Jurassic Coast South West Coast Path Two Moors Way North Devon's Biosphere Reserve