[3] The area around Tavistock (formerly Tavistoke), where the River Tavy runs wide and shallow allowing it to be easily crossed, and near the secure high ground of Dartmoor, was inhabited long before historical records.

After destruction by Danish raiders in 997 it was restored, and at the time of the Conquest ranked as the wealthiest house in Devon, including the hundred and manor of Tavistock among its possessions.

[5] In 1105 a royal charter was granted by Henry I to the monks of Tavistock to run a weekly "Pannier Market" (so called after the baskets used to carry goods) on a Friday, which still takes place today.

[7] The St Eustachius' Church (named after the Roman centurion who became a Christian) was dedicated by Bishop Stapledon in 1318 though there are very few remains of that building today.

[8] It possesses a lofty tower supported on four open arches, one of which was reputedly added to accommodate the 19th-century "tinners" or tin miners.

Within are monuments to the Glanville and Bourchier families, besides some fine stained glass, one window being the work of William Morris[5] and another of Charles Eamer Kempe.

From that time on, the dominant force in the town became the Russell family, Earls and later Dukes of Bedford, who took over much of the land following the Dissolution.

The charter of Charles II instituted a Tuesday market, and fairs on the Thursday after Whitsunday and at the feast of Saint Swithin.

Most recently, Robin, the short-lived 14th Duke, as Marquess of Tavistock, was a frequent visitor to the town along with his wife, Henrietta.

[12] Around 1540 (some sources state 1542 as the exact year), Sir Francis Drake was born at Crowndale Farm, just to the west of what is now Tavistock College.

He became a prominent figure of his age, a champion of Queen Elizabeth, the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world from 1577 to 1580 and one of the English commanders in the victory against the Spanish Armada in 1588.

[15] Mines of copper, manganese, lead, silver and tin were previously in the neighbourhood and the town played host to a considerable trade of cattle and corn, and industries in brewing and iron-founding.

[18] By 1800, cloth was heading the same way as tin had done a century earlier, but copper was starting to be copiously mined in the area, to such an extent that by 1817 the Tavistock Canal had been dug (most of the labour being performed by French prisoners of war from the Napoleonic Wars)[19] to carry copper to Morwellham Quay on the River Tamar, where it could be loaded into sailing ships.

At around this time the centre of town was substantially and ruthlessly remodelled by the 7th Duke of Bedford, including the construction of the current town hall and Pannier Market buildings, and the widening of the Abbey Bridge, first built in 1764, and a new Drake Road ramped up northwards from Bedford Square to the LSWR station.

In 1968, following the Beeching Report, Tavistock Station closed, and in 1999 English Heritage listed the building as Grade II.

[23] In 1911, the Bedford influence on the town came to an end after over 450 years, when the family sold most of their holdings in the area to meet death duties.

[24] West Devon Borough Council is based in Tavistock, about 500 metres north of Bedford Square at Kilworthy Park.

From 1944 there were a number of high ranking visits to the division, including that of Dwight D. Eisenhower, in February of that year, and Army Lieutenant General Omar Bradley.

The main station building survives as railway-themed bed and breakfast accommodation while the extensive goods yard is now known as Kilworthy Park and houses the offices of West Devon Borough Council.

The railway for around a mile south of Tavistock North station is open to the public as a footpath and nature reserve and one can walk across the viaducts that overlook the town.

[31] The trackbed of the Tavistock North route is almost intact to Bere Alston, where it joins today's Tamar Valley Line.

In 2008 a housing developer offered to rebuild the railway to Bere Alston (from a new station slightly south of the town) if they were allowed to build 800 properties.

[33] In April 2010 the Liberal Democrats had suggested that a Tavistock-Plymouth service could be included in the rail expansion plans should they win the 2010 General Election.

There has been no progress with proposals for a £1.1 million World Heritage Site Interpretation Centre, planned for 2007, to be built in the area of the Guildhall, and overlooking the River Tavy.

The college has links with Japan, Uganda, Spain and India where staff exchanges and student visits and projects take place.

[44] Some children who pass the optional Eleven-Plus exam at a high level travel to one of the three remaining grammar schools in Plymouth.

It is a fast-growing dormitory area for commuters working in Plymouth and has a sizeable retired population, perhaps drawn by the rural tranquillity and scenery, giving Tavistock an average resident age of 43.

It occurs on the second Wednesday of October, and takes over much of the town for several days either side, drawing crowds which far outnumber the resident population.

Tavistock's coat of arms is blazoned "Per pale, gules and azure, a fleece banded; a chief, dexter a lion passant gardant, sinister a fleur-de-lys, all or".

Anna Eliza Bray was the author of The Borders of the Tamar and the Tavy (1836), an account of the traditions and superstitions of the neighbourhood of Tavistock in the form of letters to Robert Southey.