A new partnership has been created to help ‘rediscover’ Tavistock’s heritage and involve the community in bringing the Benedictine abbey’s past to life.

The public are being invited to turn history detectives as Tavistock Town Council and Tavistock Heritage Trust apply for a £250,000 National Lottery Heritage Fund Grant to restore and reveal the history of Tavistock Abbey.

Public ‘digs’ will be organised and training made available for residents interested in helping excavate and preserve evidence of the town’s Benedictine history.

Planned celebratory events will include building and sailing model Viking ships in homage to the 997 AD destruction of the sbbey by the Danes.

Town Mayor Cllr Paul Ward said: “I warmly welcome this project which seeks to discover more about the abbey’s history and determine the abbey’s layout. It will preserve the remaining buildings, and develop an educational resource for everyone. This project seeks to reclaim and share Tavistock Abbey’s storied past with future generations.”

He said Tavistock Heritage Trust will manage the heritage and educational aspects and Tavistock Town Council will lead on building preservation and the management of grant funding.

Cllr Ward added: “This is an exciting development that will further cement Tavistock’s status as one of the leading heritage towns in Devon, and the only one with UNESCO (United Nations Educational and Cultural Organisation) World Heritage Site status.”

Locals will be asked to help mark out the footprint of the abbey church using medieval records. And residents encouraged to report any carved masonry from the abbey that may be part of gardens or walls.

The ambitious project wants to repair Betsy Grimbal's Tower and the Stillhouse in the Bedford Hotel garden for the long term and conserve abbey artefacts under the tower archway.

It also wants to uncover the abbey's footprint through archaeological surveys to find the church and chapter house and excavate the tower’s original floor and abbey church and cloister foundations. A new in-depth report will be published into the abbey’s history after further research.

Residents and visitors will be involved and the findings put on display with a new ‘immersive experience’ created as a visual reconstruction of the once-dominant abbey.

The public can learn old traditional building techniques while volunteers of all ages can join supervised archaeological digs, bringing history to life with hands-on discovery.

Founded in AD 974 and granted its charter in AD 981, the Benedictine Abbey of St Mary and St Rumon was central to Tavistock’s growth. It became the wealthiest religious institution in Devon by the late 11th century, benefiting from the region’s tin and wool trade.

After its dissolution in 1539, much of the abbey was demolished, with remnants incorporated into later structures, including the Bedford Hotel. Much of the building material was taken away to be used elsewhere, and today very little remains to be seen above ground.

Pending approval of the grant, work on rediscovering Tavistock Abbey is expected to begin later this year.

For more information or to get involved, please email [email protected]