Devon (England) -- Antiquities; Devon (England) -- History
In another book, containing an account of those buried in woollen, in
accordance with the law passed to encourage that trade, the entry is as
follows:—
November 21, a Dutchman cujus nomen ignotum.
There is a steep lane leading from the outer harbour up the hill to
where the station now stands, which the present vicar of Brixham
considers derives its name, Overgang, apparently a Dutch word, from
“Obergang,” or Gang-ober or “over,” and that it arose from the fact of
troops after the landing being repeatedly ordered to gang over this
hill. This may be so; but as I find that the word “gang,” meaning to go
or to walk, was in use in England in the time of Spenser, it is not
improbable that this lane gained its name before the advent of the
Prince of Orange.
The Prince’s army marched from Brixham on its way to Newton on the 6th
or 7th November, passing along the narrow lanes of Churston, Paignton,
Cockington, and Kingskerswell, taking apparently a part of two days on
the march, the roads being so bad as to make locomotion slow and
tedious.
Report says that at a place called Collins’ Grave, near the higher lodge
at Churston, where there is high ground overlooking the river, the army
encamped one night; also that the Prince himself stayed at a house in
Paignton, now the Crown and Anchor Inn. A room there is still shown as
the “Prince’s room.”
In a Protestant sense it is interesting that William landed within sight
of the Bible Tower at Paignton, where Coverdale, the translator of the
Bible, undoubtedly dwelt, and where he is said to have been probably
engaged on his translation; and doubtless this tradition was not lost
sight of by those about the Prince on his sleeping at the “Crown and
Anchor,” just outside the palace wall.
The following is Whittle’s graphic account of the march to Newton:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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