Brixham

History

The first evidence of settlement dates from the Saxon period, it being possible that settlers arrived by sea from Hampshire in the 6th century or overland in about the year 800. Brixham was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Briseham with a population of 39. Brixham was part of the former Haytor Hundred. In 1334, the town's value was assessed as being one pound, twelve shillings and eightpence. William de Whithurst, a distinguished Crown official and judge in Ireland, became parish priest of Brixham in 1350. By 1524 Brixham's value had risen to £24 and sixteen shillings. In 1536 the town was recorded as being a borough, but the status was later lost. The presence of a market is recorded from 1822. The oldest and largest of Brixham's two Anglican churches is St. Mary's, approximately inland from the sea in the area of the town once known as Cowtown. The present church, dating from approximately 1360, is the third to occupy the site (an ancient Celtic burial place), the first and second having been a Saxon building of wooden construction and a Norman one of stone respectively. On 5 November 1688, the Dutch prince, William of Orange landed in Brixham, with 40,000 soldiers, sailors and volunteers, prior to marching on London to be crowned King William III as part of the Glorious Revolution. There is a statue and commemorative plaque marking the event close to the Golden Hind replica in the Inner Harbour, while a road at the other end of the harbour, which leads up a steep hill to where the Dutch made their camp, is still called Overgang, Dutch for passage or crossing. Built in around 1736, Brixham boasts what is believed to be the world's only coffin-shaped house, the story going that its unusual design results from an argument between a father and his…