Totnes

This captivating little town claims to have been founded by an ancient Trojan named Brutus in 1200BC. The grandfather of Aeneas, the hero of Virgil’s epic poem The Aeneid, Brutus sailed up the River Dart, gazed at the fair prospect around him and decided to found the first town in this new country that would take its name, Britain, from his own. The Brutus Stone, set in the pavement of the main shopping street, Fore Street, commemorates this stirring incident when both the town and a nation were born.

The first recorded evidence of this town, set on a hill above the highest navigable point on the River Dart, doesn’t appear until the mid 10th century when King Edgar established a mint at Totnes. The Saxons already had a castle of sorts here, but the impressive remains of Totnes Castle are Norman, built between the 1100s and early 1300s. Towering over the town, it is generally reckoned to be the best preserved motte and bailey castle in Devon. It affords grand views over the town and the Dart valley.

A substantial section of Totnes’ medieval town wall has also survived and can be followed along the Ramparts Way. The superb East Gate, which straddles the steep main street is part of that wall.

Just a little way down the hill from East Gate is the charming 13th-century Guildhall, a remarkable little building with a granite colonnade that was originally part of a Benedictine priory. It houses both the Council Chamber (which is still in use) and the underground Town Gaol (which is not). The cells can be visited, as can the elegant Council Chamber with its plaster frieze and the table where Oliver Cromwell sat in 1646.

Another magnificent Elizabethan building, 16 High Street, was built in 1585 for Nicholas Ball who had made his fortune from the local pilchard fishery. When he died, his wife Anne married Sir Thomas Bodley and it was the profit from pilchards that funded the world-famous Bodleian Library at Oxford University.

The town’s Elizabethan heritage is celebrated on Elizabethan Tuesday in the summer. This is when the people of Totnes array themselves in crisp, white ruffs and velvet gowns for a charity market in the Civic Square. In August, the Elizabethan Society organises the Orange Race, which commemorates a visit to the town by Sir Francis Drake during which he presented “a fair red orange” to a small boy in the street. Today, contestants chase their oranges down the hill.

The parish church of Totnes is St Mary’s. It was entirely rebuilt in the 15th century when the town’s cloth industry was booming – at that time Totnes was second in importance only to Exeter. The church’s most glorious possession is a rood screen delicately carved in stone from the quarry at Beer.

Close by at 70 Fore Street is the Elizabethan House Museum, housed in an attractive half-timbered Elizabethan building whose upper floors overhang the street. One of the fascinating exhibits here honours a distinguished son of Totnes, Charles Babbage (1791-1871) whose Analytical Machine is universally acknowledged as the forerunner of the electronic computer. The museum display records his doomed struggle to perfect such a calculator using only mechanical parts.

A little further up the hill, in High Street, the Butterwalk and Poultrywalk are two ancient covered shopping arcades whose upper storeys rest on pillars of granite, timber or cast iron.

In recent years, Totnes has earned the title of  Natural Health Capital of the West Country. The first Natural Health Centre was established here in 1989. Visitors will find specialist shops offering natural medicines, organic food, aromatherapy, relaxation tapes and books on spiritual healing. A variety of craft and antique shops all add to the town’s allure for shopaholics.

For centuries, Totnes was a busy river port and down by Totnes Bridge, an elegant stone structure of 1828, the quay was lined with warehouses, some of which have survived and been converted into highly desirable flats. Nearby, on the Plains, stands a granite obelisk to the famous explorer William Wills, a native of the town who perished from starvation when attempting to re-cross the Australian desert with Robert Burke in 1861.

One excursion from Totnes not to be missed is the breathtakingly beautiful river trip to Dartmouth, 12 miles downstream. This stretch of the river has been called the English Rhine and the comparison is no exaggeration. The river here is well away from roads, making it an ideal location for seeing wading-birds, herons, cormorants and even seals. During the summer, there are frequent departures from the quay near the bridge.

Another memorable journey is by steam train along the seven-mile stretch of the South Devon Railway, also known as the Primrose Line, which runs through the glorious scenery of the Dart Valley to Buckfastleigh. Most of the locomotives and carriages are genuine Great Western Railway stock and are painted in the GWR’s famous chocolate and cream livery.

Next door to the railway, the Rare Breeds Farm includes a hedgehog rescue centre, some spectacular owls, red squirrels, goats, sheep, birds and much more. It also has a Garden Café with views of working steam trains and Totnes Castle.

Even that list of attractions isn’t exhaustive. The Devonshire Collection of Period Costume is housed in one of the town’s most interesting 16th-century houses and has a different display each year.