Highweek
Highweek (anciently called Teignwick (alias Teyngewike, Tingwike, Teyngewyk, etc.)), less commonly called Highweek Village is an ecclesiastical parish, former manor and village, now a suburb of Newton Abbot, but still retaining its village identity, in the civil parish of Newton Abbot, in the Teignbridge district, in the county of Devon, England. It is prominent and recognisable due to its high location on a ridge on the north edge of the town. The area is the centre of the modern electoral ward of Bradley. That ward's population at the 2011 census was 5,043. Following the Norman Conquest of 1066 the Normans built a motte-and-bailey castle here, of which only a dyke remains (giving it the local name of "Castle Dyke"), which probably remained occupied until the mid 13th century, when the chief residence of the locality became Bradley House. The mediaeval parish church, dedicated to All Saints, now a Grade I listed building, was consecrated in 1428. Until 1864 it served as a chapel of ease to the parish church of adjoining Kingsteignton having been built after the villagers petitioned the pope for their own graveyard. Geography Highweek is on a ridge that overlooks the South Devon market town of Newton Abbot, the Teign Estuary and the Bovey Basin. To the north west, Haytor and surrounding parts of Dartmoor dominate the skyline, and to the north east the Haldon Hills some 9 miles away towards Exeter can be seen. Immediately north of the village there is the unusual cone shaped hill of Daracombe Beacon that overlooks the ball clay opencast pit of Ringslade Quarry, Howton Road and the 1st Highweek Village Scout Group building. The Beacon has a cluster of trees on its peak and is one of the highest points in Newton Abbot at 82 m. Another high point immediately north of the road of Gaze Hill contains a hidden covered municipal water tank. The village gives its name to a geological unit (the Highweek Unit) that extends for at least 8 km westwards from the village. The geology underlying Highweek itself is Gurrington slate of Famennian age (a late subdivision of the Devonian period), with small outliers of resistant spilites forming both the ridge on which the church stands and the hills north of the village, such as the aforementioned Daracombe Beacon. All Saints Church By 1427 the parishioners had built a chapel at Highweek, but they had to carry their dead about three miles to the parish church in Kingsteignton. They petitioned Pope Martin V for their own graveyard because "the tides and rivers, and the mud of winter and the intense heat of summer" made the journey "both troublesome and dangerous to accomplish". The pope granted permission in a bull dated 14 May 1427, and the church and its churchyard were consecrated by Edmund Lacy, Bishop of Exeter on 19 April 1428. Until 1864 it remained a chapel of ease to Kingsteignton. All Saints has the Bradley aisle which was built by Richard Yarde of Bradley Manor