Newton Abbot

Newton Abbot is a market town and civil parish on the River Teign in the Teignbridge District of Devon, England. Its 2011 population of 24,029 was estimated to reach 26,655 in 2019. It grew rapidly in the Victorian era as the home of the South Devon Railway locomotive works. This later became a major steam engine shed, retained to service British Railways diesel locomotives until 1981. It now houses the Brunel industrial estate. The town has a race course nearby, the most westerly in England, and a country park, Decoy. It is twinned with Besigheim in Germany and Ay in France. Toponymy Newton Abbot does not appear in the Domesday Book of 1086. It is first documented in the late 12th century in Latin as Nova Villa: "new farm". In 1201 it was recorded as Nieweton' abbatis: "New settlement belonging to the abbot". The land was granted to Torre Abbey by William de Briwere in 1196. Robert Bussell acquired the area in the Highweek parish and Teignbridge Hundred, which was then Newton Bushel. The twin towns worked together and their markets were eventually combined. Local noted antiquarian Cecil Torr states that the town continued to be known simply as Newton or Newton Bushel to the majority of people prior to the arrival of the railway, which made the station Newton Abbot in order to distinguish it from other Newtons on the railways network. Even following the arrival of the railway, the mononym "Newton" remained in common use, with Richard Nicholls Worth noting in 1880 that "Newton is a modern development of the ancient towns of Newton Abbot and Newton Bushell, which the railway has made into an important centre".