The town of Crediton, in the lovely part of Devon known as Mid Devon, is one of the most charming locations in the county. With a sparse population totaling about seven thousand, Crediton has been largely fortunate in maintaining many of the old and historic buildings that dot its landscape. Rather than being forced to build strip malls and residential neighborhoods, Crediton has been able to keep a large part of itself true to its roots. A visit to the town today is like a trip back in time to days long past.
Saint Boniface, one of the most esteemed Christians in the days before the Middle Ages, was rumored to have been born in Crediton in the early 600s. This would put the city squarely in the times of the Saxon lords but Crediton as we know it didn't truly arise until around the 1200s. By this time the town was ruled over by about half a dozen bishops who each owned large swaths of land in the city. There is evidence that supports the idea that these bishops were for the most part disliked by the citizens and this culminated into a major riot in 1274.
Crediton, for all its stately beauty, has had some rather unfortunate luck throughout its existence. If it wasn't riots, as mentioned above, it was some other problem that plagued Crediton. This caused Crediton to get a bad rap and, to be sure, many people have derided Crediton throughout the years. The Royalist Army marched through Crediton in the 1600s and upon returning home many of the soldiers wrote scathing letters about how pitiful the town was. One soldier remarked that it was a "big lousy town" with clay roofs and poorly made timber walls. Around this time the Earl of Essex came through the town and, along with his soldiers, wreaked havoc on Crediton and destroyed a large portion of its buildings for little or no reason.
In the 1700s Crediton was attacked not by man or the written word but instead by God. On a Sunday morning in 1743 Crediton was visited upon by a raging fire that destroyed nearly every part of the town. It was the second most destructive fire ever to rage through England at the time and over four hundred and fifty houses were burned to the ground. Two thousand people were left homeless as a result of the fire and nearly twenty people were killed. Sadly, this wouldn't be the only fire to level Crediton, with three more major fires occurring within the next thirty years. This is tragic because we have missed out on many gorgeous Saxon Era buildings that may have still been standing to this day were it not for these fires. At any rate, one can definitely say that Crediton doesn't get its due credit in terms of hardiness and steel resolve. Any town that has weathered as much as Crediton should be lauded for the very fact that it is still standing.
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