Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Teignmouth

TEIGNMOUTH, a seaport and market town of England, in Devonshire, consisting of the parishes of East and West Teignmouth, and situated on the English Channel, at the month of the Teign and on the Great Western Railway, 14 miles south of Exeter and 209 west-south-west of London. It is somewhat irregularly built, partly on a projecting peninsula and partly on the acclivities rising behind the river. The Teign is crossed by a bridge 1671 feet in length, built of wood and iron in 1824. St Michael's church, in East Teignmouth, erected in 1822–23 in the Decorated style, was enlarged in 1875. The other buildings include St Scholastica’s abbey (erected for Benedictine nuns in 1862), the East Devon and Teignmouth club-house, the mechanics Institute (1840), the temperance hall (1879), the sailors’ home (1881), the baths (1883), and the public market (1883). There are two commodious quays and a pier 600 feet in length. Fine pipe and potters’ clay (from Kingsteignton) is shipped to Staffordshire. Coal and culm are imported, and there is also a trade with Newfoundland. Fishing is extensively carried on. The town, which is not incorporated, was formerly governed by portreeves. It now forms an urban sanitary district, which was extended on 29th September 1881. The population of the former area (1238 acres) in 1871 was 6751, and in 1881 it was 7120; that of the extended area (2347 acres) in 1881 was 8496.

Teignmouth is of very ancient origin. It received a grant of a market from Henry III. East Teignmouth was formerly called Teignmouth Regis, and West Teignmouth, Teignmouth Episcopi,—the manor having belonged to the see of Exeter until alienated by Bishop Vesey. Teignmouth was burned by French pirates in 1340, and was again devastated by the French on 26th June 1690.