Cockington

File:Cockington.jpg

File:(Cockington Village, Torquay, England) (LOC) (16236757211).jpg

The village was probably founded 2,500 years ago during the Iron Age with evidence of two hill forts on either side of Cockington Valley.{{Citation needed|date=August 2009}} Little is known about Cockington from that point up until the remains of a small Saxon village were found near the Drum Inn. The evidence from this village shows that it was primarily a fishing and farming village. The first official documentation of the village was in the 10th century.{{Citation needed|date=August 2009}} The manor was owned by Alric the Saxon, before William Hostiarus, William de Falaise and Robert FitzMartin, who passed it down to his son Roger, who renounced his name to become Roger de Cockington. The Cockington family owned Cockington Estate from 1048–1348. The Cary family (this particular branch included George Carey (c. 1541–1616)) owned the court from 1375 to 1654. It was then sold to the Mallock family a family of rich silversmiths from Exeter, who owned it from 1654 to 1932 when they sold the estate to the Torquay Corporation.{{cite web |url=http://www.torbay.gov.uk/libcockington.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2015-08-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303233605/http://www.torbay.gov.uk/libcockington.pdf |archive-date=2016-03-03 }}

In 1921 the parish had a population of 279.{{cite web|url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10094987/cube/TOT_POP|title=Population statistics Cockington CP/AP through time|publisher=A Vision of Britain through Time|accessdate=15 August 2023}} On 1 October 1928 the parish was abolished and merged with Torquay.{{cite web|url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10094987|title=Relationships and changes Cockington CP/AP through time|publisher=A Vision of Britain through Time|accessdate=15 August 2023}}

There are several buildings of note in Cockington. {{Citation needed|date=April 2025}}

{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2025}}

File:Cricket Green in Cockington, Devon.jpg

The park which is now home to the cricket grounds was originally a medieval deer park. Cricket started to be played on it in 1947. The current cricket pavilion was built after the original burnt down in the 1990s.

The Grade II listed thatched Drum Inn{{NHLE|num=1306171|desc=|date=April 10, 1987|accessdate=August 7, 2019}} is the local public house and restaurant in Cockington. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, it opened in 1936 and cost £7,000 to build. Covering 522 square metres, it uses 16th century styled bricks, made in Belgium to Lutyens specifications. The two largest chimney stacks are evocative of the shape of another Lutyens creation, the Cenotaph in London.{{Cite book|title=Cockington Bygones - A history of the Manors of Cockington and Chelston and the Parish of Cockington|last=Read|first=Brian|publisher=Portcullis Publishing|year=2015|isbn=9780953245086|pages=124}} The Drum Inn occupies the site of a former sawmill and was the flagship project of Cockington Trust Ltd, who were proposing to build a new village. It was the only building they were able to complete before the village was sold in 1946.{{Cite book|title=Cockington Bygones - A history of the Manors of Cockington and Chelston and the Parish of Cockington|last=Read|first=Brian|publisher=Portcullis Publishing|year=2015|isbn=9780953245086|pages=17}} Originally intended to be called "The Forge Inn", the name was changed as the Cockington Trust thought it might be "Predudicial to the celebrated forge in the village".

The pub sign depicting an Elizabethan soldier beating a drum, is attributed to be from the studio of Dame Laura Knight.{{NHLE|num=1206758|desc=|date=May 3, 1994|accessdate=August 7, 2019}} The original was painted on a solid sheet of copper and today it hangs on a wall inside the pub, with a facsimile in its place outside.{{Cite web|url=https://www.torbay.gov.uk/newpublicaccess/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=PL3U8UQIMVY00|title=Torbay Council Planning Application P/2019/0034|date=May 10, 2019|website=Torbay Council|access-date=August 7, 2019}} Sir Alan Charles Laurence Whistler, the noted poet and glass engraver presented Sir Edwin Lutyens with a poem titled "The Drum", engraved on a glass pane that was originally placed in a lounge window. It is now framed and is on display inside the pub.

{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2025}}

The Almshouses consist of seven terraced cottages built during the reign of King James I of England by the Cary family to house the poor and those who could not work within the village. When the Mallock family took over the Cockington estate, the almshouses fell into disrepair. They were rebuilt between 1790 and 1810.

Cockington Court{{cite web |url=http://www.torbay.gov.uk/caringforcockington.pdf |title=Caring for Cockington |access-date=2014-07-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140719062120/http://www.torbay.gov.uk/caringforcockington.pdf |archive-date=2014-07-19 |website=Torbay Council }} was the mansion house of the Mallock family, and remains the focal point of the estate. It was originally built in the 16th century, but few architectural features remain from that time. It has been altered and extended several times, most notably in 1673 by Rawlyn Mallock and about 1820 by the Reverend Roger Mallock, who had the top floor removed and the interior remodelled.

File:Cockington Court Craft Centre - geograph.org.uk - 49472.jpgCockington Court was built over the remains of a medieval court. A far cry from the days of the Cary family when it was an actual court, it is now filled with various arts and crafts workshops.{{Cite web |url=http://www.cockingtoncourt.org/craft_centre.php |title=Cockington Court Craft Centre |access-date=16 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613062032/http://www.cockingtoncourt.org/craft_centre.php |archive-date=13 June 2010 |url-status=dead }}{{Cite web |url=http://www.cockingtoncourt.org/future.php |title=Cockington Court Centre for Arts, Crafts and Culture |access-date=16 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613062037/http://www.cockingtoncourt.org/future.php |archive-date=13 June 2010 |url-status=dead }}

In her youth, Agatha Christie regularly visited Cockington. Her novel Why Didn't They Ask Evans? is dedicated to Christopher Mallock. The Mallock family were friends of Christie's from the years before her first marriage. The Mallocks staged amateur theatricals at Cockington Court, in which Christie, managing to overcome her usual crippling shyness, took part.{{Cite web |url=http://www.cockingtoncourt.org/history.php |title=Cockington Court history |access-date=16 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613061828/http://www.cockingtoncourt.org/history.php |archive-date=13 June 2010 |url-status=dead }}{{Cite web |url=http://www.cockingtoncourt.org/manor_house.php |title=The Manor House |access-date=16 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613085517/http://www.cockingtoncourt.org/manor_house.php |archive-date=13 June 2010 |url-status=dead }}

• Cockington Church which has been estimated to have been standing since 1069 {{Cite web|url=https://toplocalplaces.com/united-kingdom/torquay/church/cockington-parish-churches/187058691318449|title=Cockington Parish Churches|website=toplocalplaces.com}} built by William de Falaise.
• A water mill that is in the middle of the village;
• Cockington Forge, which has been in the same place in the village for 500 years.

• Robert Cary a chronologer was born in Cockington in about 1615.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1_E1AAAAQAAJ&q=cockington&pg=PA278 |last=Hutton |first=Charles |author-link=Charles Hutton |title=A philosophical and mathematical dictionary containing... memoirs of the lives and writings of the most eminent authors, Volume 1 |publisher=Charles Hutton |year=1815 |page=278}}
• Robert Sweet (1782-1835) an author and horticulturalist, was also born in the village.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I3wfAQAAMAAJ&q=cockington+%22robert+sweet%22&pg=PA274 |last=Blewitt |first=Octavian |author-link1=Octavian Blewitt |title=The panorama of Torquay: a descriptive and historical sketch of the district comprised between the Dart and Teign |publisher=Simkin |year=1832 |pages=270, 274}}
• Patrick, a four-year-old therapy pony, was informally elected mayor in July 2022 following a publicity campaign by a local charity. He worked with recovery groups in hospitals and mental health wards and community projects some of which involved him visiting the Drum Inn, as mentioned above. About two weeks after his appointment as honorary mayor, local health officials from the governing authority, the Torbay Council in responding to a complaint issued a restraining order preventing the pony entering the inn.{{cite newspaper|url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/beer-loving-shetland-pony-mayor-27628733|newspaper=Daily Mirror|title=Beer-loving Shetland pony mayor 'banned from pub' by council - 'it's disgusting'|date=2 August 2022|first=Amber|last=O'Connor}}

{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2025}}

In 1968, British Pathé (film reference 457.1), Sid James, Val Doonican, and Arthur Askey were filmed playing golf in Cockington for their production "Viva Torbay: Travelling to the British Seaside." (It also featured Lionel Bart).

• History of Torquay
• Chelston
• Cockington Green Gardens - named after Cockington, Devon.

{{Reflist}}

{{commons category}}

{{authority control}}

Category:Villages in Devon

Category:Areas of Torquay

Category:Former manors in Devon

Category:Former civil parishes in Devon