Trail 2: Devon’s World Heritage Town: Tavistock and the Dukes of Bedford

This walk explores how the 6th and 7th Dukes of Bedford transformed Tavistock in the 19th century through an ambitious programme of civic architecture and urban planning. It was financed by income from forestry, agricultural rents and increasingly by profits from metal mining which expanded rapidly during the industrial revolution. The most important mine was Devon Great Consols in the Tamar Valley, which opened in 1844 and became the world’s largest producer of copper and arsenic. In 2006 the global significance of West Devon’s mining industries and the dukes’ architectural legacy were recognised when Tavistock and the Tamar Valley were included in the UNESCO Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site.