Cistercian Eastminster
EGGBUCKLAND was first mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 at the head of Plym creek. Judhel had an estate called Bocheland held by Heche at the time of Edward the Confessor. The church was located in the same spot in Saxon times and the patronage was controlled by Plympton Priory from 1248 and was originally the third largest estate in Plymouth and the patronage of the Church (Heckebokel) was in the gift of the Prior of Plympton.. The first Lord of Barnstaple, Judhael of Totnes who found also the Priory of St. Mary Magdalen outside of the town wall there from the market and fair near Hemerdon. BOVEY TRACEY in Exeter Domesday or Liber Exonienis contains information for the county circuit of southwest England, primarily for the counties of Cornwall, Devon (some holdings missing), Dorset (some holdings missing) and Somerset. One holding in Wiltshire is also included in the Exeter Domesday. The two entries for BOVEY TRACEY (Boui or Bovi), indicate that several of the "booklands" recorded almost one thousand years ago have retained their names to the present day, for example; Adoneboui was probably Little Bovey, Wermehel was probably Warmhill Farm near Hennock, Scabatora was present day Shaptor, Ailauesfort was Elsford, Olueleia was Wooleigh on the Moreton Road, Hauocmora was Hawkmore, Harleia is now Harley and Polebroch was present day Pullabrooke Farm.
BUCKLAND Abbey was founded by Amicia de Redvers, the dowager countess of Devon, in 1278. One significant purpose of her foundation was to provide a memorial church for her family members, particularly her husband, Baldwin de Redvers, who had died in 1245, and her son who had been murdered in 1262. The abbey was colonised by monks from Quarr, on the Isle of Wight, which had been founded almost a century and a half earlier by the first Baldwin de Redvers, earl of Devon. The monks that settled in the new site were well provided for and suffered few of the hardships that many early Cistercian communities endured at the hands of a hostile and isolated living environment. The monks at Buckland settled in a manorialised landscape, and as such inherited all the feudal responsibilities that accompanied it. The house achieved moderate wealth and was assessed in 1535 to have an annual income of £242. It thus escaped the first round of closures but was finally dissolved in 1539. Following the Dissolution the property was bought by Sir Richard Grenville to provide an estate for his son, Roger. However, Roger drowned three years later whilst in command of the ill-fated Mary Rose. It was thus for Richard’s grandson, who inherited the abbey, to finish building the home his grandfather had started. The house was then bought by Sir Francis Drake in 1580.
In 1281 the manor of Eggbuckland was owned by Robert Gyffard. In 1297 the Patent Roll of Edward I, the spelling became Ekebukelonde. The Bishop of Exeter referred to the Church as Eckebokelonde by 1335, Hals, Collins and other families. It is from the Augustinian monks of the Priory that the housing estate of Austin Farm derives its name, which was built on farmland of the same name. Sir Walter Swyft, church vicar from January 1349, is believed to have fallen victim to the Black Death, as he held the vicariate for only three months.The bishop himself holds Bovi. Edric held this Bovey Tracey in the time of king Edward, and it paid geld for two hides. The Bishop of Exeter referred to the Church in Eggbuckland as Eckebokelonde by 1335. To this manor has been added the land of fifteen thegns in Adoneboui, Wermehel, Scabatore, Brungarstone, Eilauesford, Vluelei, Hauocmore, Harlei and Polebroch. In these lands, fifteen thegns have two hides, and half a virgate of land. There is land for eight ploughs and seven ploughs are there, in Bovey Tracey.
The bishop has a manor called Boui, which Eddric held on the day on which King Edward was alive and dead, and it rendered geld for two hides. These can be ploughed by ten ploughs. There the bishop has in demesne half a hide and three ploughs; and the villains have one hide and a half, and ten ploughs. There the bishop has sixteen villains, and eight bordars and eight serfs, and one pack horse and thirty head of cattle, and seven swine and eighty five sheep, and five goats and one mill which renders five shillings, and sixty acres of wood, and five acres of meadow, and fifty acres of pasture, and it renders yearly ten pounds, less two shillings and six pence. Bovey Tracey was thought to lie nearer than Eggbuckland to the waters.