LGA History

This page has details of the early history of the Southern Area, the Leechwell Stream, more recent history and various DOS documents.

The History of the Garden

A survey of the garden dated 1873 (see below) clearly shows water from the Leechwell flowing through the garden into a pool and then along one side of a cultivated plots. tucked behind a bend in the wall of Leechwell Lane. The watercourse eventually joins the stream running through the back gardens of Moorashes.

The pool, which is actually triangular, was identified as an Immersion Bath and scheduled as an Ancient Monument by English Heritage in 2005 . The Bath is lined with stone and slate and has two steps leading into it. Each side is about 15ft long and it is about 3ft deep. It is fed by water from the Leechwell Holy Well - located higher up, 100ft above the garden. Today the water reaches the Bath via a culvert or pipe which probably runs outside the wall of the garden, beneath Leechwell Lane.

The present garden was an old orchard, part of the property of Leechwell Cottage, until it was divided and Leechwell Bungalow built around 1930. Before that the orchard was owned (or leased) by many different people, one of whom was William Bogan of Bowden House in 1656. Earlier still, the orchard may have been in ownership of the Church or the town.

Opinion is divided and we do not have enough evidence, but it is possible that the orchard was once part of the grounds assigned to the Magdalene Leper Hospital. This was situated above the garden, in Maudlin Road and was established in around 1250 and had about 12-14 brethren, not all necessarily lepers. The hospital had its own chapel and well. Hospital rules generally required inmates to stay within the hospital grounds, so it is unlikely that they would have used the Leechwell or have been seen much in the town centre.

Deeds record that the Magdalene grounds once included a 'herbe' or vegetable garden as well as an orchard. Although very close by, we do not have enough evidence to say that the present garden was definitely once the orchard of the leper hospital. The immersion bath may have been used by inmates of the hospital.

The Magdalene Leper Hospital gradually became redundant. It was pulled down and the grounds sold in 1719.

The Leechwell Stream

There is other evidence that the water from the Leechwell once flowed as an open stream from near the well to the pool in the Bungalow Garden. In 1864, the land that now forms the garden of Leechwell Cottage, the Leechwell Garden and the land on which the new houses on Heathway West have been built, was sold at auction. The poster advertising the auction, below left, contains the words: "and a perpetual Stream of the celebrated Leechwell Water runs through the Premises" The 1873 Survey, shown above, shows the path of this stream as a blue line. The design for the garden reinstates this stream and extends it down through the garden as an open water-course.

Note. The 1864 poster gives the area as 1¾ acres, while the area shown on the 1873 map is about 1½ acres. The missing area may have been the various 'orchard' pieces (shaded pink below) which are now owned by houses in Maudlin Road. Taken together these exactly make up the difference.

Recent History

What's happened since the 1980's when SHDC built the link road and acquired the Bungalow Garden - the 1995 and 2003 plans, SOS, DOS etc (to be written).

DOS Documents

In 2004 DOS held a 3-day "Big Event", summarised in a dossier and during 2005 the DOS Open Space Group, led by Sue Holmes, produced three further documents. These four documents are available for downloading as PDFs (just click on the cover image) but be warned that they are large (6.5, 3.5, 11 and 20 MB respectively).

	This document contains summaries and a visual overview of the research done by DOS leading up to the "Big Event".
	Following the production of designs for the new buildings for the Southern Area, the South Hams District Council asked DOS to set up a Steering Group to how the open space within the area could be designed and managed. This is what this report is about. It looks at what needs to be done and who could do it.
	This Open Space Strategy Report is the "big picture" for open space in Totnes, and seeks to define the value and role of open space and to ensure that open spaces enhance the quality of the environment, the life of local communities and social inclusion by creating a community framework for participation in open space provision and management. It also offers the basis for a greater mutual understanding between the Council and the community on some fundamental aspects of project management.
	The third document is a collection of ideas from the community of what we might see at the end. These ideas were shown at an Exhibition in the Civic Hall on 30 June 2005 and then collected in this document.