St Lawrence Green - Source of the Litterburn

May 10, 2020

St Lawrence Green, outside QE Academy in Crediton, is a pleasant spot to sit or a place for students to gather after school. But it was once the site of fairs, public events and even hangings. It was also the source of an ancient stream, the Litterburn. In his second blog local historian Mike Hole explores a well known part of town with a fascinating past.

The Litterburn is an ancient stream that ran down on the bottom side of the High Street and, later in its history, became Crediton’s open sewer. Its source is close to St Lawrence Green and, when the Green was first developed as a public park, there was a cairn where the old toilets stand. That cairn might have marked the spot of this amazing little spring. It is perhaps the reason Crediton has such a steep sided High Street, with the Litterburn flowing down it to the mid-section of town, where it dissolved into the boggy land of Newcombes Meadow. After that it fed down to where the milk factory stands today, ending up in Lord’s Meadow.

The Green got its full name from the small ancient St Lawrence chapel just to the west. It was a piece of waste land holding fairs and public events. The odd hanging took place there too and it is reputed to be the site of the stocks in the town. Crediton’s annual fair also took place there in the nineteenth century.

This all changed with Victoria’s Jubilee of 1897, when it was decided to create a lovely open space in the West town. Paths and gardens were created, all enclosed by iron railings, with smart gates.

Today, surrounded by well-proportioned houses, it is dominated by Queen Elizabeth’s school. But that is a latecomer to the area. Although the school was founded in 1547, for most of its history it was based in the main Parish Church, moving to the top of town only in 1861.

The Green has always been a very busy place, as it is close to the main West Town well at Cockwell. Here is a report from late 1880 about the drowning of a fourteen-year-old girl in the well . The well was quite large and boards were placed to cover it. That night the boards had been taken up, because the bucket had broken.

The inquest at the Dock Inn, on the body of a girl named Fanny Lee, who was drowned in a well the previous night. The girl, aged about fourteen years, was a servant to Mr S. Gillard, a baker, at the Green, and is the daughter of a labouring man living at Cockwell. The jury, after viewing the body, inspected the well where the girl was drowned. It is situated at the rear of Mr Gillard's premises. The body was identified by a brother of the deceased. Mrs Ann Gillard deposed that between five and six o'clock on Thursday night she asked the girl to empty a pan. finding she did not return, sent one of her children to find her, and then sent another older child. She afterwards went herself. Arnold, in answer to her, said that he had not seen the deceased or heard her. The witness asked him if the boards were up, and he said yes. She then said, "It is all over; she is down the well," at the same time directing Arnold to procure a lantern and get assistance. It was a very rough night and dark.

In the centre of the Green stands the base of a cross. It seems to be all that remains of the cross that stood near the site of Mitchell’s bakery on the High Street for hundreds of years. It has been said that the cross was used for the horrible event of bear baiting, which certainly took place in this town at the time of the fair.

But most of us will remember the Green as a nice place to sit and watch the world go by. Maybe buying an ice cream from the West Town Dairy. (The dairy later became the Grapevine restaurant and was at one stage the Grove Inn.)

The Green today looks remarkably untouched, apart from the removal of the iron railings for the war effort and the building of the ugly toilets. I think we are very lucky to have this lovely open historic space.