Mutley Plain
Encyclopedia
Mutley Plain is a street in Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...

, Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

, England. Although Mutley Plain is the main street of the dense suburb called Mutley, the term is often applied to the whole area. The road is a busy dual-carriageway, the B3250, with eight sets of traffic lights/pelican crossings. It was built as a smart tree-lined avenue in late Victorian times and improved over the next half century as a local shopping place for its neighbourhood and the affluent area to the north.

History

Mutley Plain lies on the route of an ancient road linking Bilburgh, a Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

 settlement on the coast at Sutton Pool which later formed the nucleus of the city of Plymouth, to the north. Mutley was originally the name of two parishes to the west of this road in the valley of the Houndiscombe Brook, the land to the east being part of the parish of Lipson.

Before the Norman invasion
Norman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...

 in 1066, the parish of Higher Mutley was owned by a man Alwin of Tamerton, and Lower Mutley by another man called Goodwin
Goodwin
Goodwin may refer to:In people:* Goodwin , people with the surname Goodwin*Goodwin Rosen, Canadian Major League Baseball all star outfielderIn places:* Goodwin Island, Nunavut, Canada...

, but at the time of the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 (1086) both were owned by Odo
Odo
Odo , played by René Auberjonois, is a major character on the science fiction television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He is a member of a fictional shapeshifting race called Changelings and serves as the head of security for the space station Deep Space Nine on which the show is...

, whose feudal overlord was Juhel of Totnes
Juhel of Totnes
Juhel of Totnes was a Breton nobleman and supporter of William I of England of the eleventh century.-Life:He was in 1069 one of the leaders of Breton forces on the Norman side, fighting against the remaining forces that had been loyal to Harold II of England He was Lord of Totnes, and holder of...

. In the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 the two parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

es were said to be worth five shilling
Shilling
The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...

s each. Lower Mutley had two farms while Higher Mutley consisted of ten sheep, one farm and two smallholding
Smallholding
A smallholding is a farm of small size.In third world countries, smallholdings are usually farms supporting a single family with a mixture of cash crops and subsistence farming. As a country becomes more affluent and farming practices become more efficient, smallholdings may persist as a legacy of...

s.

Railway

A tunnel was driven beneath Mutley Plain by the South Devon Railway Company
South Devon Railway Company
The South Devon Railway Company built and operated the railway from Exeter to Plymouth and Torquay in Devon, England. It was a broad gauge railway built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel-Chronology:* 1844 South Devon Railway Act passed by parliament...

 and was opened to traffic on 2 April 1849. Formerly this was the site of Mutley Station, opened 1 August 1871 and known as the 'Station of the Gentry
Gentry
Gentry denotes "well-born and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past....

'. It was closed 2 March 1939, and has since been replaced by a car park.

Today

Due to its proximity to the expanding University of Plymouth
University of Plymouth
Plymouth University is the largest university in the South West of England, with over 30,000 students and is 9th largest in the United Kingdom by total number of students . It has almost 3,000 staff...

 and the city centre, large numbers of students now live in the area. There are many bars, takeaways and cafes as well as two small supermarkets.

Mutley Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

 church is a notable architectural feature. The area is mostly built up except for a small park on Moor View Terrace however Central Park
Central Park, Plymouth
Plymouth's Central Park is a large centralised park situated to the north of Plymouth city centre in south west Devon, England, stretching north from the train station to Pounds House, Peverell and west from Ford Park Cemetery to the A386 .Central Park is trust land, which explains why it has not...

 and Ford Park Cemetery
Ford Park Cemetery
Ford Park Cemetery is a cemetery in central Plymouth, England, established by the Plymouth, Stonehouse & Devonport Cemetery Company in 1846 and opened in 1848. At the time it was outside the boundary of the Three Towns and was created to alleviate the overcrowding in the churchyards of the local...

are nearby.
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