Ashburton

Town in south Devon, England; population (2001) 3,740. It is situated on the River Ashburn, 16 km/10 mi northwest of Totnes, in the southeast corner of Dartmoor. Ashburton became a stannary (tin-mining) town in 1328, through a charter established by Edward III.

Ashbourne is an attractive town with typical Devon gable-styled houses. It has a cruciform church, St Andrew's, built in the 14th and 15th centuries, whose interior was restored by G E Street in the 19th century. The town was important in the English Civil War, with Mermaid Inn, now a hardware shop, serving as General Fairfax's headquarters. It is one of just eight towns in England to still have the office of ‘portreeve’, an ancient Saxon office of royal official and tax collector that dates back to 820. A tradition connected to the office, kept alive in the town, is the Annual Ale Tasting and Bread Weighing Ceremony held near the end of July.