page_title: Cullompton
section_title: Nineteenth century to present
hierarchical_section_title: Cullompton / History / Nineteenth century to present
caption_attribution_description: English: The Hayridge Centre in Cullompton which contains the library and a new car park are on the site of the former health centre and magistrates court.
context_page_description: Cullompton is a town and civil parish in the district of Mid Devon and the county of Devon, England. It is 13 miles north-east of Exeter and lies on the River Culm. In 2011 the parish as a whole had a population of 8,499 while the built-up area of the town had a population of 7,439
  The earliest evidence of occupation is from the Roman period – there was a fort on the hill above the town and occupation in the current town centre. Columtune was mentioned in Alfred the Great's will which left it to his youngest son Aethelweard.
  In the past the town's economy had a large component of wool and cloth manufacture, then later leather working and paper manufacture.
  A large proportion of town's inhabitants are commuters but there is some local manufacturing, including flour and paper mills. It has a monthly farmers' market held on the second Saturday of every month which is the oldest event of its kind in the South West. It is home to two grade I listed buildings: the fifteenth-century St Andrew's parish church and the seventeenth-century house known as The Walronds.
context_section_description: In 1805 or 1806 the last bull-baiting in the town took place. On 7 July 1839, a severe fire destroyed many houses in Cullompton. About two thirds of the town burnt with 145 houses and other buildings being destroyed. A subscription for rebuilding was set and donations of £5 were made by Barne and Son, tanners of Tiverton, and Cullompton tanners Mortimore and Selwood. In 1847 a riot occurred in the town due to the high price of wheat. Three houses were attacked, including one in Pound Square belonging to Mr Selwood, the owner of a local tannery and also a maltster. He was accused of speculatively buying 2000 bushels of corn and when his house was attacked, almost all the windows were broken and his furniture was also damaged.
  There have been police stations in the town since 1857, when the first Police Station was rented. It had three cells and a petty session courtroom. A new police station was built in 1974, which underwent a major refurbishment in 2011, to become a police force hub for Mid Devon, with 72 staff members. The town acquired its first steam driven fire engine in 1914 which cost £100 and was paid for by voluntary subscription.
  In April 1903 a petition objecting to the renewal of alcohol licences for local inns, signed by 450 people, was presented to the Brewsters sessions (magistrates court meetings in England where pub licences were renewed or granted). A deputation sent to the session explained that the number of licensed houses was too large in proportion to the population. In 1917, the cattle market moved from the Higher Bullring to a field near the station. The first cinema was opened in the Victoria Hall in 1918 by Bill Terry and in 1977 the town was twinned with Ploudalmézeau in Brittany, France.
  In 1920, a public company was formed to provide an electricity supply for Cullompton which merged with the Bradninch Electricity Company in 1927 to form the Culm Valley Electricity Supply Co. Ltd. A gasworks was set up in Cullompton in 1865 for the Cullompton Gas Light and Coke Co. This was taken over by the Devon Gas Association and nationalised in 1949. The gasworks was closed in 1956 and Cullompton was then supplied from Exeter.
  Another serious fire occurred on 17 October 1958, when Selwood's tannery in Exeter Street was gutted by fire; the site was subsequently used by a series of supermarkets. It was run as a Gateway store and then as a Somerfield before closing in 2010. Aldi re-opened on the site in April 2014 following a major refurbishment of the store.
  The town saw a major expansion in the 1970s as the construction of a bypass in 1969, and its conversion into part of the M5 in 1974, made it a popular commuter town, and it continued to expand during the closing years of the 20th century and the first few years of the 21st century. The Mid Devon Local Development Framework Proposals include plans to erect 95 new dwellings a year, and to build 4,000 square metres (43,000 sq ft) of new employment floorspace a year between the start of the plan and 2026. The first Cullompton town website was set up in 1998 and a new website was created in 2011. CCTV was installed in the main street in 2000.
  In March 2010, it was announced that the town's magistrates' court was to be closed due its poor facilities and lack of rooms. It had been suggested that the site might be developed as a town hall or the site used as a car park. but this plan was prevented when a group formed to oppose the proposal to purchase the site for a new town hall were elected to two thirds of the council seats in May 2011. In June 2011, it was announced that two local businesspeople had purchased the site and the building was demolished in March 2012 to make space for a car park.
  The town got its first permanent library in 1938 in a building on Exeter Hill. In September 2011, a new library opened on a new site, which was four times the size of the old one and cost three million pounds. This was followed shortly afterwards, in December 2011, by the opening of the Cullompton Community Centre, costing 1.5 million pounds. The Tiverton Dramatic Soc
caption: The Hayridge Centre and car park on the site of the former health centre and magistrates court.
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