Barnstaple Stadium

Barnstaple (/ˈbɑːrnstəbəl/ (listen) or /ˈbɑːrnstəpəl/) is a river-port town in North Devon, England, at the lowest crossing point of the River Taw flowing into the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool. Great wealth ensued. Later it imported Irish wool, but its harbour silted up and other industries developed, such as shipbuilding, foundries and sawmills. A Victorian market building survives, with a high glass and timber roof on iron columns. The parish had a population of 24,033 at the 2011 census, and the built-up area of 32,411 in 2018. The town area with nearby settlements such as Bishop's Tawton, Fremington and Landkey, had a 2020 population of 46,619.

History

The earliest settlement in the area was probably at Pilton on the bank of the River Yeo, now a northern suburb of the town. Pilton is recorded in the Burghal Hidage (c. 917) as a burh founded by Alfred the Great, and it may have been the site of a Viking attack in 893, but by the later 10th-century Barnstaple had taken over its role of local defence. Barnstaple had a mint before the Norman Conquest.

The feudal barony of Barnstaple had its caput at Barnstaple Castle, granted by William the Conqueror to Geoffrey de Montbray, who appears as its holder in the 1086 Domesday Book. The barony fell to the Crown in 1095 after Montbray rebelled against King William II. William re-granted the barony to Juhel de Totnes, formerly feudal baron of Totnes. In about 1107, Juhel, who had already founded Totnes Priory, founded Barnstaple Priory, of the Cluniac order, dedicated to St Mary Magdalene. After Juhel's son died without children, the barony was split between the de Braose and Tracy families, before reuniting under Henry de Tracy. It then passed through several other families, before ending in the ownership of Margaret Beaufort (died 1509), mother of king Henry VII.

In the 1340s, merchants of the town claimed the rights of a free borough had been granted them by King Athelstan in a lost charter. Althoug