Beccles Through Time

In recent decades, few communities in Devon have experienced such a rapid growth in population as Kingsteignton. Former country lanes are now busy highways and once green fields have given way to housing as the face of Kingsteignton has changed forever. Founded as a key settlement of the Anglo-Saxon conquest in the early eighth century, Kingsteignton became something of a backwater during the Middle Ages, quietly nestled on the north bank of the Teign Estuary. The development of the vast reserves of ball clay on the western side of the parish in the early nineteenth century, accelerated by the building of two canals, saw workers from all parts of Devon move to Kingsteignton in search of jobs. Population movement was facilitated by the expansion of the railways and improvements in the road network. Today two main road routes and a nearby rail link make Kingsteignton easily accessible, bringing ever more growth and change.